THE OVERTHROW OF SALVADOR ALLENDE IN CHILE, 1973 term paper

Trained as a physician, Salvador Allende (1908–1973) was one of the founders of Chile’s Socialist Party. As the leader of the leftist coalition Popular Action Front, Allende failed to win the presidential elections of 1958 and 1964. In the election of 1970, however, Allende won a thin 36 percent plurality. This was enough to ensure that he would become the first Marxist president of Chile. Allende’s agenda included an aggressive policy of land reform, nationalization of large foreign companies, including the American-owned Anaconda Copper Mining Company, raising workers’ wages, and freezing prices.

In 1972, however, three problems emerged. First, a fall in world copper prices severely weakened Chile’s economy. Second, many business leaders, large landowners, and the media attacked Allende’s policies in the press, on the radio, and in the Congress. Many of his conservative critics began to look to the military for new political leadership. Third, Allende’s takeover of American-owned companies operating in Chile angered the Nixon administration. President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, refused to accept the fact that Chile could elect a Marxist president. Kissinger publicly stated, “I don’t see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible.”

Initially resorting to economic measures, the Nixon administration wanted to bring down Allende and blocked international loans ear-marked for Chile. Nixon also authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to spend $10 million to “destabilize” the Allende government. The CIA gave more than $8 million to Allende’s political opponents, strengthened ties with the Chilean military, and subsidized a national truck drivers’ strike as well as an employers’ lock-out of workers.

By 1973 Chile’s economy was in shambles. The Nixon Administration’s destabilization policies had undermined Chile’s economy and weakened Allende’s control. Inflation was running at 150 percent; a series of strikes, lock-outs and poor harvests had increased unemployment and disrupted government services. Yet, despite these problems, in the March 1973 elections Allende’s party won 43 percent of the vote. To placate conservatives in the military, Allende appointed General Augusto Pinochet as chief of staff. Pinochet warned Allende that unless he changed his economic policies the military would seize power. Allende refused to change course. On 11 September 1973, Pinochet ordered an attack on the presidential palace in Santiago. Allende was in the palace and died in the attack. It remains unclear if he was murdered or committed suicide. Pinochet, who ruled Chile as dictator from 1973 to 1990, immediately instituted a free-market economic policy. He also began a vigorous crackdown on Allende’s supporters, journalists, and virtually all opposition groups at home and abroad. Pinochet’s National Intelligence Directorate or DINA embarked on a policy of terror and repression that resulted in the death or dissappearance of more that 4,000 people. One blatant example was the car bombing by security forces that killed Orlando Letellier, Allende’s foreign minister, in September 1976, in Washington, D.C.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Investigate the holdings of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in Chile in the 1970s and Allende’s reasons for nationalizing the company.
2. Why did the Nixon administration decide to take an anti-Allende position? Evaluate its reasons for doing this.
3. In a research project on General Pinochet’s coup in 1973 and the death of Allende, pay particular attention to the role played by the CIA.
4. The Pinochet regime was criticized for its record of human rights violations. Among the most blatant was the car bombing that killed Orlando Letellier and an American associate in Washington, D.C. Do a research project on the involvement of DINA in this act and the U. S. government’s official response. Was the response appropriate? Provide reasons for the position you take.
5. After reviewing the evidence in the case of the disappearance of Charles Horman, an American journalist, while covering the aftermath of Pinochet’s coup, write an essay discussing what you think happened and why it happened. Defend the position you take. Use Thomas Hauser’s book as a starting point (see Suggested Sources).
6. Some scholars argue that Pinochet’s human rights abuses must be balanced against his economic record. After reviewing Pinochet’s economic policies and the performance of the Chilean economy during his time as dictator (see Suggested Sources), write a paper commenting on the impact of his economic policies.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Guatemalan Coup, 1954” (#50) and “Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, 1959” (#57). Search under Isabel Allende, Ariel Dorfmann, and human rights.

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Allende, Salvador. Chile’s Road to Socialism. Translated by J. Darling. Baltimore: Penguin Books 1973. Allende’s explanation of his policies.

Debray, Régis. The Chilean Revolution: Conversations with Allende.New York: Pantheon Books, 1972. Candid revelations by Allende on how he wanted to bring socialism to Chile.

Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. 2 vols. Translated by Phillip E. Berryman. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Press, 1993. A chilling collection of accounts verifying Pinochet’s extensive human rights abuses.

United States Congress. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs. United States and Chile During the Allende Years, 1970–1973. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1975. Wide-ranging testimony of the implications of the Nixon administration’s policies.

Secondary Sources

Davis, Nathaniel. The Last Two Years of Salvador Allende. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985. Provides a good understanding of Allende’s economic and political problems.

De Vylder, Stefan. Allende’s Chile: The Political Economy of the Rise and Fall of the Unidad Popular. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974. Focuses on the economic conditions that brought Allende to power.

Falcoff, Mark. Modern Chile, 1970–1989: A Critical History. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1989. A good introduction to Allende’s place in Chilean history.

Hauser, Thomas. The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978. This case of an American journalist, who was probably executed in Chile for his reporting on the Pinochet regime, prompted his father to sue Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and formed the basis for the 1982 Costa-Gavras film Missing.

Ramos, Joseph R. Neoconservative Economics in the Southern Cone of Latin America, 1973–1983. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. Strong on showing how Pinochet’s economic policies were part of a trend throughout South America.

Rojas, Róbinson. The Murder of Allende and the End of the Chilean Way to Socialism. Translated by Andrée Conrad. New York: Harper and Row, 1976. A critical account of U.S. policy in Chile.

Sigmund, Paul E. The Overthrow of Allende and the Politics of Chile, 1964–1976. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977. Balanced and well written. A good starting point for understanding Allende’s policies.

World Wide Web

“The National Security Archive.” http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv. Key United States government documents on Pinochet’s coup.