US' more Authoritarian Allies in Cold War tried to spread influence throughout world

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We've all heard the reasons why the US 'needed' to have dictatorships and authoritarian regimes as allies, they were necessary to stop Communism. We also heard that they were weak and they would not be able to spread around, and they wouldn't try to take over the world or something like that.

Pinochet Regime - Argued by Conservatives that Pinochet's coup was needed to stop Allende from supposedly turning Chile into a Communist state. No communist plot was stopped, but Pinochet murdered 1000's of people, caused many more 1000's to be 'disappeared', let a pedophile torture people, killed political dissidents outside his country, including one here in the United States.

Galtieri Regime - Leopoldo Galtieri was received by Ronald Reagan as a guardian against Communism. Reagan and Thatcher's support for him went down the drain when he invaded the Falkland Islands though.

Apartheid Regime - While Reagan, Thatcher, and Jerry Falwell were saying that the policies of Apartheid South Africa were necessary to protect it from a plot to take it over from the USSR. But, the racist government itself was exerting power far beyond it's borders, whether it was sending letter bombs to political opponents all the way up in Europe or hiring people such as Jack Abramoff to push propaganda for them.