The traditional narrative that socialist countries are inherently authoritarian and thus the US needs to "liberate" them is backwards.

The US FIRST engages in economic & military terrorism against socialism, forcing stricter security measures, which it then complains about.

There is a reason that most people know about the repressiveness of the USSR without knowing about the brutal five year civil war. Or Cuba's "dictatorship" and not the decade-long terrorist campaign waged against it. Or the DPRK's regime and not the scale of destruction it faced.

Forcing socialist countries to adopt stricter security measures to increase criticism directed against the govt is a direct goal of the CIA. Baselessly criticizing socialist countries without knowing the complete story is directly falling for US state department propaganda.

Receipts for those of you interested — yes the CIA directly said it hoped its terrorism would lead to more security measures and public criticism. Comes from Keith Bolander’s Voices from the Other Side.