Business as usual, but better the bully than the psychopath.
From Wikipedia's "1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'état":
"[..] The United Fruit Company (UFC), whose highly profitable business had been affected by the end to exploitative labor practices in Guatemala, engaged in an influential lobbying campaign to persuade the U.S. to overthrow the Guatemalan government. U.S. President Harry Truman authorized Operation PBFORTUNE to topple Árbenz in 1952; although the operation was quickly aborted, it was a precursor to PBSUCCESS."
Reading about those things, one get the impression that the Department of State works for the Camber of Commerce, instead of the USA citizens.
> Reading about those things, one get the impression that the Department of State works for the Camber of Commerce, instead of the USA citizens.
If I'm not mistaken the first permanent "embassies" were set up by the Venetians (mostly) and the Genoese, and their role was essentially just that, i.e. protecting the economic interests of their "home" entities. It so happened that most of the time protecting the citizens who happened to reside in foreign countries also meant protecting their home-city economic interests, but that mainly happened because the citizens involved were traders themselves. So, in a way, you could say that what the Department of State is now doing is just the continuation of the initial idea of a "foreign embassy".
Surely, the role of the embassy of a power, ruled by a oligarchy of merchants and aristocrats, it's very different from the expected role of the embassy of a democratic federal republic.
From Wikipedia's "1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'état":
"[..] The United Fruit Company (UFC), whose highly profitable business had been affected by the end to exploitative labor practices in Guatemala, engaged in an influential lobbying campaign to persuade the U.S. to overthrow the Guatemalan government. U.S. President Harry Truman authorized Operation PBFORTUNE to topple Árbenz in 1952; although the operation was quickly aborted, it was a precursor to PBSUCCESS."
Reading about those things, one get the impression that the Department of State works for the Camber of Commerce, instead of the USA citizens.
(1). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A...