First of all, i will note that you are from Colorado Springs....I am from Colorado as well....beautiful state, great hockey team, etc.
But i'm also going to guess you haven't had that many history classes that cover America and what it's done in other countries...because we HAVE made ourselves unpopular, because we have tried to force our Western beliefs onto others. Taft's foreign policy involved us trying to force our economy down the throats of latin american and middle eastern countries, which they resented. We've also overthrown numerous leaders of other countries who were actually trying to help their people.