Why were American discouraged by the rise of dictatorships in Europe and Asia?

Americans and the US are very patriotic and large advocates of democracy. The US has a long history of trying to spread democracy around the world because of its strong favoritism of democracy, as the US was the first modern democracy in the world. Especially in the past, the US wanted nothing to do with dictatorships or non-democratic nations. That is why there was the Cold War, for starters.