List of dictators supported by the United States: #01 Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu Sese Seko with Richard Nixon. Washington D.C., 1973.

"For the most part, Zaire enjoyed warm relations with the United States. The United States was the third largest donor of aid to Zaire (after Belgium and France), and Mobutu befriended several U.S. presidents, including Nixon, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.

Because of Mobutu's poor human rights record, the Carter Administration worked to put some distance between itself and the Kinshasa government; even so, Zaire was the recipient of nearly half the foreign aid Carter allocated sub-Saharan Africa." [Wikipedia]

See the full List of Dictators Supported by the United States.