my last rant(well, forward message) for the day...

[Guest guest]

Nothing But Human Rights

by Mickey Z.

 

As journalist William Blum notes, there¹s one thing the United States

hates more than a Marxist in power, and that¹s a democratically elected

Marxist in power. A prime example was Salvador Allende of Chile.

September 4 marks 31 years since his election. September 11 marks 28

years since his death in a U.S.-sponsored coup.

"I don¹t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist

because of the irresponsibility of its own people."

‹Henry Kissinger, June 27,1970

 

Salvador Allende, a physician by trade, first gained worldwide attention

when he came within three percent of winning Chile¹s 1958 presidential

election. Six years later, the United States decided to no longer leave

such elections to chance. It was time to introduce the Chilean people to

democracy, American-style.

The U.S. government, mostly through the covert efforts of the Central

Intelligence Agency, spent more money per capita to support Allende¹s

opponent, Eduardo Frei, than Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater combined

to spend that same year in the American presidential election.

 

With an estimated $20 million of U.S. taxpayer money to work with, the

CIA embarked on a program of anti-communist propaganda and

disinformation designed to scare Chilean citizens‹specifically

mothers‹into believing that an Allende victory would result in direct

Russian control of their country and their lives. “No religious activity

would be possible,†they were told. Their children, hammer and sickle

stamped on their foreheads, would be shipped to the USSR to be used as

slaves, the radio and newspapers direly warned.

The scare tactics worked. While Allende won the male vote by a small

margin, 469,000 more Chilean women chose Frei. Cleverly manipulated to

fear the “blood and pain†of “godless, atheist communism,†the mothers

of Chile voted against the man who promised to “redistribute income and

reshape the . . . economy†through the nationalization of some major

industries, like copper mining, and the expansion of agrarian reform. A

far cry from Leninism, Allende¹s policy of “eurocommunism,†i.e.

communists linking with social democratic parties into a united front,

was for the most part, as unacceptable to the Kremlin as it was to the

White House.

 

When the 1970 Chilean presidential election rolled around, Allende was

still a major player. However, he had a new and powerful enemy: Dr.

Henry Kissinger.

Despite another wave of U.S.-funded propaganda, Salvador Allende was

elected president of South America¹s longest functioning democracy on

Sept. 4, 1970 with Henry Kissinger (HK) and his cohorts had to act. The

40 Committee was formed with HK as chair. The goal was not only to save

Chile from its irresponsible populace but to yet again stave off the red

tide.

 

“Chile is a fairly big place, with a lot of natural resources,†says

Noam Chomsky, “but the United States wasn¹t going to collapse if Chile

became independent. Why were we so concerned about it? According to

Kissinger, Chile was a Œvirus¹ that would Œinfect¹ the region with

effects all the way to Italy.â€

 

At a Sept. 15 meeting called to halt the spread of infection, Kissinger

and President Nixon told CIA Director Richard Helms it would be

necessary to “make the [Chilean] economy scream.†While allocating at

least $10 million to assist in sabotaging Allende¹s presidency, outright

assassination was also considered a serious and welcome option.

 

The respect held by the Chilean military for the democratic process led

Kissinger to pick as his first assassination target not Allende himself,

but General René Schneider, head of the Chilean Armed Forces. Schneider,

it seems, had long believed that politics and the military should remain

discrete. Despite warnings from Helms that a coup might not be possible

in such a stable democracy, HK urged the plan to proceed.

“Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA¹s plan to kidnap and

murder Schneider,†declares journalist Christopher Hitchens. “The is one

of the relatively few times when Mr. Kissinger involved himself in the

assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter of

anonymous thousands.â€

 

When the killing of Schneider only served to solidify Allende¹s support,

a CIA-sponsored media blitz similar to that of 1964 commenced. Citizens

were faced with daily “reports†of Marxist atrocities and Soviet bases

supposedly being built in Chile. U.S. threats to sever economic and

military aid were also used to help cultivate a “coup climate†among

those in the military. These two approaches represented the hard and

soft lines outlined by Nixon and HK.

 

How soft was soft? Edward Korry, U.S. ambassador to Chile at the time,

articulated the soft sell by declaring that the U.S. task was “ to do

all within our power to condemn Chile and the Chileans to utmost

deprivation and poverty.†Korry warned, “not a nut or bolt [will] be

allowed to reach Chile under Allende.â€

 

On the hard side, Dr. Henry began securing support for a possible

military coup.

“In 1970,†writes historian Howard Zinn, “an ITT director, John McCone,

who had also been head of the CIA, told Kissinger and Helms that ITT was

willing to give $1 million to help the U.S. government in its plans to

overthrow the Allende government.â€

 

“The stage was set for a clash of two experiments,†says Blum. Allende¹s

socialism was pitted against what was later called a “prototype or

laboratory experiment to test the techniques of heavy financial

investment in an effort to discredit and bring down a government.†This

clash would reach its climax on Sept. 11, 1973.

 

The socialist experiment ended in violence on that day and Allende

himself was said to have committed suicide . . . with a machine gun. Of

course, the U.S. claimed no complicity in or even knowledge of the coup

at the time. However, when the State Department declassified 5000

documents in 1999, a different story was told.

 

For example, a CIA document from the day before the coup stated bluntly,

“The coup attempt will begin September 11.†Ten days later, the Agency

announced, “severe repression is planned.†With thousands of opponents

of the new regime gathered in soccer stadiums, a Sept. 28 State

Department document detailed a request from Chile¹s new defense minister

for Washington to send an expert advisor on detention centers.

 

Allende was dead. In his place, the people of Chile now faced brutal

repression and human rights violations, book burnings, dogs trained to

sexually molest females, a powerful secret police, and more than 3000

executions. Tens of thousands more were tortured and/or disappeared.

Shortly after the coup, U.S. economic and military aid once again began

to flow into Chile.

 

The man in charge of all this was General Augusto Pinochet, a man Dr.

Kissinger could really get behind. “In the United States, as you know,

we are sympathetic to what you are trying to do,†HK told the Chilean

dictator in 1975. “We wish your government well.

 

“My evaluation†he continued to Pinochet, “is that you are the victim of

all the left-wing groups around the world and that your greatest sin was

that you overthrew a government that was going communist.â€

Later that same year, when facing a roomful of Chilean diplomats

concerned about the effect Pinochet¹s human rights violations might have

on world opinion, Henry was in top form:

Well, I read the briefing paper for this meeting and it was nothing but

human rights. The State Department is made up of people who have a

vocation for the ministry. Because there were not enough churches for

them, they went into the Department of State.

 

Was HK really that concerned with the minor nationalization of industry

proposed by Salvador Allende or were other forces at work here?

 

Here¹s how the CIA saw it three days after Allende won the election:

“The U.S. has no vital national interests within Chile. The world

military balance of power would not be significantly altered by an

Allende government. [but] an Allende victory would represent a definite

psychological advantage for the Marxist idea.â€

 

“Even Kissinger, mad as he is, didn¹t believe that Chilean armies were

going to descend on Rome,†explains Chomsky. “It wasn¹t going to be that

kind of an influence. He was worried that successful economic

development, where the economy produces benefits for the general

population‹not just profits for private corporations‹would have a

contagious effect. In those comments, Kissinger revealed the basic story

of U.S. foreign policy for decades.â€

Accordingly, in 1974, when the new U.S. ambassador to Chile, David

Popper, complained about Chile¹s human rights violations, Dr. Kissinger

promptly sent these orders:

“Tell Popper to cut out the political science lectures.â€