# Chile 1973, the OTHER 9/11 -- not America's finest hour. (somewhat long) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 11, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936 "2003-09-11T07:08:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tclouie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@tclouie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tclouie)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/1 "2003-09-11T07:08:13Z")
I was listening to Pacifica Radio today, and they were talking about the junta of murderers and torturers that took over Chile in 1973. A translated voice-over was giving the testimony of a woman who was a victim of the junta: “They raped me so many times that I became pregnant. Fortunately, due to the torture, I aborted a few months later. They trained dogs to rape me. They forced me to have sex with my father and brother. 85% of the torture was sexual. Many of the men were raped too, but they don’t like to talk about it, perhaps because of machismo.” The junta also did things like repeated near-drownings, electric shock applied to the genitals, and rats introduced into the vagina via a tube. (The rats were then electrically shocked, and the frightened creatures would try to dig their way out.) This is really sick $#!+ – it’s almost like these sadists, given total power to do whatever they wanted to another human being, were thinking “Hm, what other evil stuff can we come up with?” There is evidence that Nixon and Kissinger connived at the coup. (Read, for instance, Marc Cooper’s and Christopher Hitchens’ writings on the subject.) A judge in France called Henry Kissinger for questioning about war crimes, but the suspect skipped town. Mr. Kissinger will have to be very careful where he travels for the rest of his life. Oh yes, let’s not forget that the Chile junta perpetrated what Cooper calls “the only major act of foreign terrorism on American soil until the WTC in 2001.” To wit, they blew up a car in Washington, D.C., killing a Chilean exile named Orlando Letelier and his American secretary, Ronni Moffitt. To my knowledge, no one has ever been extradited or imprisoned for this crime. Inside Chile, the junta killed 3,000 people – officially. That’s the same number that was killed in _our_ 9/11. Unofficially, it may have been as much as 20,000 over 17 years of terror. Choose your 9/11. The junta killed citizens of many different countries. Two Americans, Charlie Horman and Frank Teruggi. (See the film _Missing_.) A British-born priest, Father Michael Woodward. Citizens of Spain, France and other countries. They dispatched assassins to many other countries under “Operation Condor.” This could help explain why so many European judges have been busy putting Interpol onto the assassins, including junta leader Augusto Pinochet himself. Since Pinochet narrowly escaped a European prison, the Chilean courts have been considerably braver in indicting and investigating the torturers and murderers. But not the American courts. Some CIA files have been opened, but as far as I know there have been no extradition requests. As far as I know, the murderers and torturers may have had to go to court more often, but they are still walking around free. Unlike Bin Laden and Saddam, their location is known. But they are not hunted. No Marines are going door to door in Santiago. God Bless America? During the bombing of Serbia, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright held a meeting with human rights leaders to try to get their support against Milosevic. She told them that, unfortunately, the US military had insisted that nothing be done about Pinochet. God Bless America? There was a recent issue of _The Nation_, “In Torture We Trust?” which tells how American forces are now torturing captives for information, or knowingly turning captives over to foreign torturers. There is a disturbing new documentary, “The Caravan of Death” (also referred to in _The Nation_), which raises questions about atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. My local UPN news station gave a cheery and approving report about how the U.S. is torturing captives with loud music. But the good news is…no sexual torture, so far!!! (God Bless America?) Columnist William F. Buckley, always a Pinochet fan, staunchly defended the dictator when he was arrested in England. God bless…conservative punditry? When I heard that Saudis had killed 3,000 Americans on the second 9/11, our own 9/11, I was sad, shocked, a little angry. But, I’m sorry to say that if it had been perpetrated by Chileans, or Salvadorans, or Nicaraguans, or Guatemalans, my reaction would have been…well, definitely not approving, but a little more…nuanced. And, I am so f\*\*\*\*\*g sorry if that makes you angry with me. 3,000 American lives are not worth more than 3,000 foreign lives. I’m so sorry if you find that statement unacceptable. Choose your 9/11. God Bless Americans. God Bless Iraqis. God Bless Chileans. And everybody else. _(Thank you, Chris Rock!)_ ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_Mexico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@Roger\_Mexico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_Mexico)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/2 "2003-09-11T07:42:39Z")
Thanks for starting this thread…we always heard it was to protect the investments of Anaconda Copper and ITT, who incidentally aided the Nazis during WWII by building Focke-Wulfe bombers. But there was an even nobler cause, protecting the market shares of Pepsi: ‘It is the firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup… Please review all your present and possibly new activities to include propaganda, black operations, surfacing of intelligence or disinformation, personal contacts, or anything else your imagination can conjure…’ ‘Eyes only, restricted handling, secret’ message. To US station chief, Santiago. From CIA headquarters. 16 October 1970. You would be wrong to assume this plan for mayhem was another manifestation of the Cold War between the ‘free world’ and communism. Much more was at stake: Pepsi-Cola’s market share and other matters closer to the heart of corporate America. In exclusive interviews with The Observer last week, the former US Ambassador to Chile, Edward Korry, told the story in - and behind - these and other top secret CIA, State Department and White House cables recently released by the National Security Archives. Korry filled in gaps in the story by describing cables still classified, and disclosing information censored in papers now available under the US Freedom of Information Act. Korry, who served Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, told how US companies, from cola to copper, using the CIA as an international debt collection agency and investment security force. Indeed, the October 1970 plot against Chile’s President-elect Salvador Allende, using CIA ‘sub-machine guns and ammo’, was the direct result of a plea for action a month earlier by Donald Kendall, chairman of PepsiCo, in two telephone calls to the company’s former lawyer, President Richard Nixon. [http://www.gregpalast.com/printerfriendly.cfm?artid=36](http://www.gregpalast.com/printerfriendly.cfm?artid=36) That’s right, Nixon was a lawyer for Pepsi, thus that famous pic of Nixon and Brezhnev drinking a Pepsi to celebrate detente. An interesting sidelight. One person who confessed to the Letelier assassination was Peace Corps volunteer gone bad, Michael Townley. He didn’t need to be extradited because he was put into the witness protection program. So you can guess which agency he was working for. [http://www.lakota.clara.net/Library/letelier.html](http://www.lakota.clara.net/Library/letelier.html) “3,000 American lives are not worth more than 3,000 foreign lives. I’m so sorry if you find that statement unacceptable.” Actually, the ratio of the relative worth of American lives to foreign lives is pegged to the currency exchange rate. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/3 "2003-09-11T07:45:17Z")
> [@](#): > > 3,000 American lives are not worth more than 3,000 foreign lives. I’m so sorry if you find that statement unacceptable. > > Choose your 9/11. Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Our country needs to recognize its mistakes, and apologize. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/4 "2003-09-11T12:55:05Z")
We obviously haven’t learned a g-d thing. [This Yahoo! article](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030911/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/chile_coup_anniversary_3) makes no mention of US (CIA) involvement in the coup. Hey, I’m not an America hater, but we sure do have a piss poor track record when it comes to picking other countries’ leaders.☹ ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/5 "2003-09-11T13:09:24Z")
I am deeply afraid of a repeat of this atrocity in Venezuela. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/6 "2003-09-11T13:10:41Z")
So…is there a Great Debate here or did you mean to post this in MPSIMS? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/7 "2003-09-11T13:20:13Z")
I’m also unclear what the debate topic is. As it’s more of a rant, perhaps you meant to place this in the Pit? ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/8 "2003-09-11T13:32:04Z")
It’s about time! We haven’t had a good conspiracy-riddled America bashing thread in a long time. **Roger\_Mexico** , those are ‘interesting’ cites. Maybe something from Geocities or something equally credible will bolster your case. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/9 "2003-09-11T14:27:13Z")
Here’s one for you, **Brutus** : _The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,_ Eduardo Galeano. (Orig. in Spanish, at home on my bookshelf: _Las venas abiertas de America Latina._) Read it and weep; I did, in college, as part of a class reading list for a course titled “Development of Latin American Culture.” Here’s what [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) has to say about it: [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0853459916/qid=1063290837/sr=2-3/ref=sr\_2\_3/103-7513202-7024620](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0853459916/qid=1063290837/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/103-7513202-7024620) ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/10 "2003-09-11T14:47:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Brutus \* > \*\*It’s about time! We haven’t had a good conspiracy-riddled America bashing thread in a long time. > > **Roger\_Mexico** , those are ‘interesting’ cites. Maybe something from Geocities or something equally credible will bolster your case. \*\* Perhaps the BBC would be an acceptable source, then? Specifically on Chile… [US ‘undermined Chile’s democracy’](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1022347.stm) C[IA releases documents on Chile operations](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1022258.stm) [Pinochet: the US connection](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/225533.stm) [Chile security chief was CIA informer](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/932897.stm) ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/11 "2003-09-11T15:01:52Z")
I am far from an expert on this subject, but that hasn’t stopped others from posting here so here it goes. A large number of documents have been declassified recently regarding US operations in Chile pre-1973, and it is abundantly clear from the documents that the US was drawing a map for overthrowing the Chilean government. The documents show detailed discussions on how such an overthrow could be accomplished by funding and promoting opposition groups. What the documents fail to show is that the US ever implemented any of those plans. Just yesterday NPR’s Fresh Air show featured an interview with an author who’s published a book where he reviewed those declassified documents and came to the conclusion that the US wouldn’t have made those plans without intending to execute them, therefore the US executed the plans. On the same show was a short interview with a former CIA agent in Chile who pretty much said that yes, they’d been asked to come up with scenarios for overthrowing the Chilean government but that they’d never executed them, and had never been asked to execute them either. His contention was that Allende’s government was a minority government, which had already announced a plan to confiscate, read “nationalize”, the property of not just foreign companies but of Chilean companies as well. In other words, the US might have been wanting to get rid of Allende, but there were a whole lot of very powerful Chileans who had much better motive, means, and access. Having said that I should add that the US provided an awful lot of aid, monetary and military to the Pinochet government, so even if the US government was not directly involved in putting Pinochet in power it certainly helped keep him there. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/12 "2003-09-11T15:09:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bayonet1976 \* > \*\*I am far from an expert on this subject, but that hasn’t stopped others from posting here so here it goes. A large number of documents have been declassified recently regarding US operations in Chile pre-1973, and it is abundantly clear from the documents that the US was drawing a map for overthrowing the Chilean government. The documents show detailed discussions on how such an overthrow could be accomplished by funding and promoting opposition groups. What the documents fail to show is that the US ever implemented any of those plans. > > Just yesterday NPR’s Fresh Air show featured an interview with an author who’s published a book where he reviewed those declassified documents and came to the conclusion that the US wouldn’t have made those plans without intending to execute them, therefore the US executed the plans. On the same show was a short interview with a former CIA agent in Chile who pretty much said that yes, they’d been asked to come up with scenarios for overthrowing the Chilean government but that they’d never executed them, and had never been asked to execute them either. His contention was that Allende’s government was a minority government, which had already announced a plan to confiscate, read “nationalize”, the property of not just foreign companies but of Chilean companies as well. In other words, the US might have been wanting to get rid of Allende, but there were a whole lot of very powerful Chileans who had much better motive, means, and access. > > Having said that I should add that the US provided an awful lot of aid, monetary and military to the Pinochet government, so even if the US government was not directly involved in putting Pinochet in power it certainly helped keep him there. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/13 "2003-09-11T15:10:22Z")
Hey **Brutus** , how about the CIA themselves, reported by [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/09/19/us.cia.chile.ap/). It may be “conspiracy-riddled America bashing”, but in this case, a) the conspiracy’s real, and b) “America” (or at least the CIA) deserves bashing in this instance. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/14 "2003-09-11T15:19:46Z")
Sorry about that. I was trying to point out that though there isn’t documented evidence of US involvement in the coup, that certainly isn’t any indication that there wasn’t. If the US was involved, it would necessarily be in covert fashion. I’m sure that if there were meetings between CIA operatives and Chilean opposition to Allende, nobody published the minutes. Plus, I wouldn’t think that an ex-CIA agent in Chile would be a very good source. He’s either disgruntled, therefore suspect, or not disgruntled, still in the fold, therefore suspect. Catch-22. Also, I don’t think this qualifies as “conspiracy theory”, if you will. There’s plenty of non-wack info out there that strongly suggests involvement. ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/15 "2003-09-11T15:28:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by An Arky \* > \*\* Hey, I’m not an America hater, but we sure do have a piss poor track record when it comes to picking other countries’ leaders.☹ \*\* aahhemm… not only foreign now… but their own leaders too. 🙂 As for US involvement in South America… lets say that there was no “protests” over democracy being overthrown. Chile even if not helped by the US, the coup members knew the US would support them in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/16 "2003-09-11T15:30:07Z")
**Brutus** , how about this document, found on the UMichigan webpage? It’s an official response from the federal intelligence agencies to Congress, mandated by a federal statute, as it explains in its opening paragraph: > [@](#): > > **Summary of Sources/Methodology** > > To respond to Section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (referred to hereafter as the Hinchey Amendment), the Intelligence Community (IC), led by the National Intelligence Council, reviewed relevant CIA records of the period predominantly from recent document searches; studied extensive Congressional reports regarding US activities in Chile in the 1960s and 1970s; read the memoirs of key figures, including Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger; reviewed CIA’s oral history collection at the Center for the Study of Intelligence; and consulted with retired intelligence officers who were directly involved. > > This broad information base has given us high confidence in our responses to the three questions, which are answered directly below. The body of the report, however, provides much greater detail in an effort to tell the story of CIA involvement and put the answers into their proper historical context. The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities—the Church Committee—conducted in 1975 a thorough document review and interviews, and produced a report that still stands as a comprehensive analysis of CIA actions in Chile during the period from 1963 to 1973. > > CIA’s response to the Hinchey amendment should be viewed as a good-faith effort to respond in an unclassified format to the three questions, not as a definitive history of US activities in Chile over the past 30 years. And here’s the first answer posed and answered: > [@](#): > > **Summary of Response to Questions** > > 1. **Q.** All activities of officers, covert agents, and employees of all elements of the Intelligence Community with respect to the assassination of President Salvador Allende in September 1973. > > **A.** We find no information—nor did the Church Committee—that CIA or the Intelligence Community was involved in the death of Chilean President Salvador Allende. He is believed to have committed suicide as the coup leaders closed in on him. **The major CIA effort against Allende came earlier in 1970 in the failed attempt to block his election and accession to the Presidency.** Nonetheless, the US Administration’s long-standing hostility to Allende and its past encouragement of a military coup against him were well known among Chilean coup plotters who eventually took action on their own to oust him. And, further on: > [@](#): > > **Support for Coup in 1970.** Under “Track II” of the strategy, CIA sought to instigate a coup to prevent Allende from taking office after he won a plurality in the 4 September election and before, as Constitutionally required because he did not win an absolute majority, the Chilean Congress reaffirmed his victory. **CIA was working with three different groups of plotters. All three groups made it clear that any coup would require the kidnapping of Army Commander Rene Schneider, who felt deeply that the Constitution required that the Army allow Allende to assume power. _CIA agreed with that assessment._** Although CIA provided weapons to one of the groups, we have found no information that the plotters’ or CIA’s intention was for the general to be killed. Contact with one group of plotters was dropped early on because of its extremist tendencies. CIA provided tear gas, submachine-guns and ammunition to the second group. **The third group attempted to kidnap Schneider, mortally wounding him in the attack. CIA had previously encouraged this group to launch a coup but withdrew support four days before the attack because, in CIA’s assessment, the group could not carry it out successfully.** So, in the CIA’s own response to a congressional inquiry, they admitted that they assisted groups who were planning on overthrowing a democratic, constitutional regime, because they didn’t like who had won the election. They did that knowing that a leading Chilean military officer, supporter of the constitutional process, was going to be kidnapped. They only pulled back from the group that did kidnap him when they decided that group wouldn’t likely succeed, not because it was an illegal, unconstitutional coup. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/17 "2003-09-11T15:30:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*Hey **Brutus** , how about the CIA themselves, reported by [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/09/19/us.cia.chile.ap/). \*\* Except, in that link, the CIA denies their involvement in the 1973 coup. > [@](#): > > The CIA admits prior knowledge of the plot that overthrew Allende three years later but denies any direct involvement. The agency says in the report that it had no way of knowing Allende would refuse safe passage with his palace under bombardment and kill himself. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/18 "2003-09-11T15:37:51Z")
whoops - forgot the link: [CIA Activities in Chile](http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/text/ciachile.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/19 "2003-09-11T15:44:58Z")
Also, more generally, if the CIA was involved, so what? Allende was talking about nationalizing American firms, making him a threat to us. Pinochet was an ally, so it made sense to have him there. If he was brutal to his own people, what is that to us? ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936/20 "2003-09-11T15:52:04Z")
That is quite **Amazing** ly callous, not to mention hypocritical in the extreme. Do you really wish to espouse such a position? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-not-americas-finest-hour-somewhat-long/200936.md?page=2)