When America fought communism, not autocracies

Sometime after 1980, the media and political elite forgot that prior to, say 1980, America was more than willing to support autocrats and authoritans of that would aid in what America then viewed as its principal foreign policy goal, fighting communism.

A leading example:

The support the U.S. gave to the Shah of Iran 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi

up until he was deposed in 1979.

Indeed, so tightly linked were the U.S. and the Shah linked in the minds of the Iranian people, 

that when the Shah was overthrown, 

Iranians showed their dislike for America via the Iran hostage crisis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis .