Chile and Us Affairs

In the 1960s America, the pope of democratic faith, preached to the world about the evils of communism. When Marxist Salvador Allende lost by three percent in the Chilean election of 1958, the United States decided that the next election of 1964, could not be left in the hands of democracy. The United States began to work to stop Allende from becoming president. They went so far as to create projects to help train and organize so-called anti-communists among the peasants, laborers, students, and the media. Despite their efforts, in 1970 Salvador Allende was elected president through plurality. He became the first Marxist in the world to gain power in a free democratic election. Now you might ask, why would the United States be so interested in the politics of a third world country, furthermore the beliefs of one man. After all a person can only do so much, right? Salvador Allende promised to redistribute Chile’s income (only two percent of the population received forty-six percent of the income), nationalize major industries (especially the copper companies), and to expand relations with socialist and communist countries. Allende’s presidency presented a threat to the United States; a man with such aspirations would have to stray from United States policies and the policies of all other countries. Allende would neither respect nor consider the work the United States had done for them in the past. The United States would no longer be able to act as a parasite, sucking the money out of Chile. The U.S. decided it must stop this man from rising to power as soon as possible. While U.S. government hostility to the Allende regime is not doubted, the U.S. role in the coup itself remains a controversial matter. Documents show that the CIA had wanted the overthrow of Allende in 1970, immediately after he took office. The CIA was notified by contacts of the impending Chilean coup lead by General Augusto Pinochet two days in advance. Immediately after the Allende government came into office, the U.S. sought to place economic pressure on Chile. U.S. National Security Council documents stated that pressure should be placed on the Allende government to prevent its success and limit its ability to create policies against the U.S.

The U.S. plan for a potential coup in Chile was evident in a secret cable from Thomas Karamessines, the CIA Deputy Director of Plans, to the Santiago CIA station, on October 16, 1970. It said, "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup ... it is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG States Government and American hand be well hidden."

Once it became clear that Allende had won a plurality of the votes in 1970, the CIA proposed two plans, known as Track II and I. Track I was designed to persuade the Chilean Congress, through President Eduardo Frei, to make sure Jorge Alessandri would end up as president. Alessandri would resign shortly after, which would allow Frei to run against Allende in the later elections. However, Track I was never carried out because Frei, despite being anti-Allende, did not want going against Chile's democratic traditions.

The second plan, Track II, provided that the CIA would find generals willing to prevent Allende from assuming the presidency and provide them with support for a coup. A coup is short for a coup d'йtat, which is a sudden overthrow of government. If everything went according to plan the military leader would then call new elections in which Allende could be defeated. Yet there is no evidence that the U.S. directly backed Pinochet's