It's called nurturing a potential client dictatorship.

AKA Neo-colonialism.
The US gov't will support any junta, despot, or regime, so long as they continue to buy from US military contractors. It's common for World Powers to extend thier sphere of influence this way, but the US has it down to an art.

(See Nigeria, Nicaragua, Mexico, Phillipenes, Liberia, Zaire, Saddam's Iraq, The Shah's Iran, Haiti, South Vietnam, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia)
_________________________
The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.--Voltaire