I’ve read in The Secret History of the CIA that he was the best thing that ever happened to Chile, and Nixon and the CIA were assholes for staging the coup.
Wikipedia on the other hand reports that the military held free elections soon after the coup, and that was the best thing ever to happen to Chile.
What’s the straight dope?
No doubt opinions about Allende and the coup are going to depend a lot on people’s political prejudices, but I do not see the bit about free elections soon after the coup in Wikipedia, and, frankly, it does not sound likely. The first election mentioned is a “controversial” plebiscite to establish a new constitution, with coup leader Pinochet becoming president, seven years after his original coup.
Are you reading a different article? (Possibly there are edit wars going on.)
Missed edit window:
No, it does not look like edit wars.
Seven years is not soon after, and a plebiscite that confirms the current dictator as president for the next 8 years does not sound to me like a free election.
Everything I’ve read (and been taught) says that Allende being ousted was horrible for Chile. Pinochet’s reign left thousands tortured/killed/disappeared.
…
As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende and the days before
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium
Es Verdad
Those Washington bullets again
…
Joe Strummer (for The Clash) Washington Bullets
'Cause fucking folk singers were really that fucking dangerous to fucking Pinochet. :mad:
CMC fnord!
I too rely on punk rock for accurate historical information.
I do not think it is very widely disputed that the Pinochet regime was absolutely horrible, though. As for Allende, he never got a chance to do much.
I don’t.
I start with things like this Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents relating to
the Military Coup, 1970-1976. I proceed from there until I get that “I’m really wanting to open an artery” feeling, then stop reading and just add sites to my already bloated bookmarks.
Joe only introduced me to Victor Jara.
CMC fnord!
Perhaps I confused Wiki with the CIA Factbook.
Thanks, all.
Allende was ruining the country’s economy and triggered a constitutional crisis. He was not the best thing to happen to Chile. The coup was not the best thing either since it resulted in a 15 year dictatorship and many several thousands of people being killed. Whatever the best thing to happen to Chile was it probably did not happen in the 70s.
Was it Allende that ruined the economy? I thought it was the U.S. that did so in order to destabilize Chile.
Does the CIA Factbook assert that there were free elections held soon after Pinochet’s coup? :dubious:
The US (and other countries) imposed a boycott of Chile in response to Allende nationalizing foreign-owned copper mines. Whether you want to hang the boycott on Allende or Nixon is up to you.
It’s hard to say if Allende’s economic reforms would have ruined the economy on their own or not, but certainly the US boycott made it impossible for them to succeed given the degree to which Chile’s economy was dependent on exports, especially copper exports to the US. It’s probably pretty safe to say that antagonizing one’s largest trading partner was an economic blunder, even without CIA conspiracies. Allende may have assumed that friendlier relations with the communist world would bring in more trade, but he was working under the overly optimistic picture of the Soviet economy most of the world had at that time, and in retrospect that was not a realistic assumption for him to make. The price of copper also came down quite a lot during his rule, which definitely did not help.
Excellent way to describe the situation.
No, I believe they have the dates right.
“After a series of elected governments, the three-year-old Marxist government of Salvador ALLENDE was overthrown in 1973 by a military coup led by Augusto PINOCHET, who ruled until a freely elected president was installed in 1990. Sound economic policies, maintained consistently since the 1980s, have contributed to steady growth, reduced poverty rates by over half, and have helped secure the country’s commitment to democratic and representative government. Chile has increasingly assumed regional and international leadership roles befitting its status as a stable, democratic nation.”
So the prompt, post-coup free elections were entirely a figment of your imagination, I guess.