Carlos A. Parodi[lower-alpha 4] said the dissolution of the Soviet Union gave the US greater freedom to use military force to defend its interests. He quotes Noam Chomsky, who said; "It should have surprised no one that George Bush celebrated the symbolic end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, by immediately invading Panama and announcing loud and clear that the United States would subvert Nicaragua's election by maintaining its economic stranglehold and military attack unless 'our side' won".[23]