Cherry picked history at best. US history is woefully inadequate at covering the events of the 20th century.

We've basically excised anything in our history that could make capitalism look bad and socialism look good. We don't talk about how instrumental socialists were to the civil rights and suffragette movements. We don't discuss the very real cost of colonialism, how the US sent our military to violently prop up dictators in South America at the behest of corporations. We don't talk about the fact that US business leaders once planned a fascist coup. We barely discuss the history of the labor movement and worker exploitation in this country. We don't talk about how socialists were historically oppressed by the government here and abroad, or how many of the figures we revere in our history books were socialists or at least closely linked with them (Hellen Keller, George Orwell, Albert Einstein, MLK, the list goes on).

History is written by the victor, and we've excised a lot of things that make the US look bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm no tankie. I'm not going to defend the USSR or Maoist China, they did unequivocally horrible things, but they aren't the sum total of the socialist movement. It would be like judging Christians entirely on the pogroms and crusades.