# Presidential suicide? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2023, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450 "2023-05-02T06:20:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450/21 "2023-05-03T13:28:02Z")
Hitler. And his little dog, too! ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450/22 "2023-05-04T18:23:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Chilean president Salvador Allende may or may not have committed suicide in a coup. Yes, National Lampoon mentioned this in their “news” section at the time as told by the coup leaders who replaced him… _“Caramaba! Our beloved president has committed suicide by shooting himself in the back twenty times, pausing only once to reload!”_ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450/23 "2023-05-04T18:25:51Z")
I believe he “shot himself” with an AK 47. Nixon believed him to be too friendly with commies. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450/24 "2023-05-04T18:38:59Z")
Yes, even back then very few people took the coup leader’s claim seriously that it was suicide. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Nixon believed him to be too friendly with commies. Considering he was a Marxist, not surprising. His major transgression at the time was nationalizing the assets of American companies, without what would be considered fair compensation (YMMV). To Nixon et al, it was Cuba all over again. Which would make Pinochet one of the Pigs in the Bay. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450/25 "2023-05-04T18:53:23Z")
Mrs. Plant’s (v.3.0) daughter was married to a Chilean. I gently sounded him out about how the guy on the street in Santiago felt about a CIA backed coup. He said, “I heard something about that.” He and his Wife were joking about how you could shoot yourself from across the room, so I guess there isn’t much animosity held. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450/26 "2023-05-04T20:14:23Z")
I’m going to bet that depends a lot on how old the Chilean person is. I was eating lunch a couple days ago with two 25yo co-workers who remarked that they had no personal memory of 9/11; They were alive then but it was before anything they can remember. Which kind of brought me up short. I was not quite 43 on that day. The CIA / Nixon-driven coup / assassination of Allende will be 50 years old here in a couple months. The plotting was probably already going on 50 years ago today. Any Chilean old enough to be outraged about that was probably at least age 20 then, so 70 now. And I’m going to suggest that the greatest outrage would probably have been from someone more like age 40 then, so 90 now. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450/27 "2023-05-05T03:30:21Z")
And, of course, many of the most outraged were locked up (or worse) after Pinochet came to power. So there is a pretty decent chance they didn’t make it to 90. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-suicide/983450/28 "2023-05-06T01:43:30Z")
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