The Other 9/11: Did the Nixon administration overthrow Chilean President Salvador Allende?

Transcription

1 The Other 9/11: Did the Nixon administration overthrow Chilean President Salvador Allende? 1

2 The Pinochet extradition case became one of the first attempts to hold dictators respsonsible for human rights violations 2

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4 Salvador Allende (Popular Unity) Jorge Alessandri (National Party Radomiro Tomic (Christian Democrat) 4

5 Nixon personally ordered a covert action plan to prevent the election of Allende. Henry Kissinger: I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. 5

6 Track I was a spoiling operation to prevent an Allende victory by funding his opposition and fomenting splits within the Allende coalition (Unidad Popular). U.S. Ambassador to Chile Edward Korry struggled with the Nixon administration for control of the covert operation. 6

7 Outcome of the September 1970 Presidential Election Candidate % of popular vote Allende (Popular Unity) 36.6 Alessandri (National Party) 35.3 Tomic (Christian Democrat)

8 Nixon secretly ordered the CIA to make the economy scream to stimulate a military coup that would prevent the ratification of Allende as president. (Track II) CIA cable, 16 October

9 The commander and chief of the Chilean Armed Forces, General René Schneider, insisted that the military would not interfere in the election. CIA assets assassinated Schneider in late October 1970 but the expected coup did not transpire. Allende assumed the presidency on 3 November

10 Accomplishments of the Allende government: <worker s wages increased 50% in 1971 <development projects: housing, sanitation, health programs, land reform <expropriation of certain foreign businesses, including the nationalization of the copper industry <flourishing of democratic organizations and revolutionary popular culture 10

11 The Allende government faced many internal obstacles: <UP did not have a majority in Congress and was internally divided: Christian Democrats gradually abandoned the Allende coalition <Chilean military and the wealthy opposed Allende <inflation soared, which alienated the middle and working classes <land expropriation and transportation strikes caused disruption in the food supply 11

12 The Allende government also had to cope with the Nixon administration s destabilization program, designed to create a coup climate : <Washington encouraged its Latin American anticommunist allies, such as Brazil and Argentina, to isolate Chile <U.S. economic aid was curtailed, and pressure was exerted on the World Bank and the Export-Import Bank to deprive Chile of further loans <The CIA assisted Allende s political opposition in interim elections, and passed funds to private sector organizations that opposed Allende <The CIA spread propaganda about the Allende government that exaggerated the communist threat <U.S. military aid continued and U.S. intelligence officials kept in close touch with Chilean military officials in order to monitor coup plotting 12

13 On 11 September 1973 a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet toppled the Allende government in a military coup d etat. 13

14 Allende committed suicide in the Presidential Palace before he could be captured by the military. 14

15 Within a few days, Pinochet assumed control of the junta and became the dictator of Chile for the next 17 years. 15

16 Augusto Pinochet and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger consulting after the coup. 16

17 Pinochet s regime imprisoned, tortured, and murdered tens of thousands of Chileans deemed to be communst subversives. Victor Jara Orlando Letelier Charles Horman 17

18 Chile s experiment with socialism most likely would have failed even without U.S. hostility, but the Nixon administration did contribute significantly to the creation of a coup climate. Kissinger to Nixon on 16 September 1973: We didn t do it. I mean we helped them by creating the conditions as great as possible. 18