I had thought the rule was that America simply hated socialist countries and did its best to destroy them in case people elsewhere might discover that there was an economic alternative to American controlled capitalism in their countries. But that doesn’t explain the hatred of people like Trump and Bolton for Iran. So a more general version of nomdeplume’s rule is that America hates all countries that will not accept its economic, social and cultural hegemony. The Roman and British Empires were the same in their day.