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Lessons from the 1973 Coup in Chile – Part 1

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By Democratic Socialists of America

Wikipedia

To mark the 41st anniversary of the military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende’s democratically elected socialist government in Chile, we’re pleased to post the first article in a two-part series by Jorge A. Lawton, who worked as a Latin American analyst on the Senate “Church Committee,” and as an advisor to former Chilean Foreign Minister, Orlando Letelier, until his assassination in September 1976. — Ed.

By Jorge A. Lawton

Pre-dawn on Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 1973, three years of relentless intervention by the hemisphere’s greatest power, the United States, succeeded both in choking off Chile’s historic experiment in its “transition to socialism through democracy,” and in giving birth to the brutal years of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. For many reasons, both U.S. perception and policy against the “Allende experiment in socialism,” as well as U.S. support for and use of the Pinochet alternative, are rich in present day and future lessons. Close examination also reveals how the same relatively limited repertoire of policy tools is likely to be available to implement U.S. interests today and in the future (for ex., destabilization efforts in Venezuela).

Over these past four decades, many formerly classified documents have been brought to light, and significant architects of the Chile policies have been interviewed. Not the least of these efforts came in l974-75, through the Senate Select Committee to Investigate U.S. Intelligence Activities, popularly known simply as the “Church Committee” after its chair, Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho). Valuable additional documentation has been unearthed through persistent Freedom of Information Act, or “FOIA,” requests for declassification by public interests groups such as The National Security Archive (located in Washington, D.C.) and The Center for Constitutional Rights (located in New York City), as well as authors and teams of investigators in Chile and abroad. Finally, some of us who lived through and survived those turbulent years, now growing older, are also putting pen to paper.

Source: Lessons from the 1973 Coup in Chile – Part 1