In the midst of a constitutional crisis, Chileans are also at odds over the legacy of one of the darkest days in their nation’s past. Fifty years ago, in September 1973, a military coup, welcomed but not instigated by the CIA, toppled the democratically elected, socialist president Salvadore Allende. In his place came Army Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile with an iron fist for nearly 17 years.
Pinochet’s regime was notorious for murdering, torturing and imprisoning thousands of its opponents, canceling elections, and destroying labor unions and political parties. Yet, according to polls, significant numbers of Chileans today believe the military coup was justified because of the economic chaos and leftist drift brought on by Allende’s management of the country. The current crisis over a new constitution (to replace the Pinochet-era constitution) is a reflection of Chile’s complicated history of political conflict between left and right.
In this episode of History As It Happens, historians James Lockhart and Kristian Gustafson dissect the CIA’s role in opposing Allende’s rule after 1970. President Nixon hoped U.S. operatives could block Allende’s inauguration by covertly working with his domestic opponents in the Chilean military, Congress and media. After all, Allende won only about a third of the popular vote, a plurality that required the affirmation of Chile’s Senate two months later. The CIA efforts failed in 1970 — or backfired, after the assassination of Chilean Gen. Rene Schneider — but the country was embroiled in such chaos by 1973 that the military needed no such encouragement to undermine Allende’s government, Mr. Lockhart and Mr. Gustafson said.
The CIA’s role remains highly contested among scholars. “The CIA, following Nixon’s orders in 1970, sent a clear and unambiguous message to the Chilean officer corps that we want you to take power and block the Allende government, and we will back you if you do. They never retracted that message,” said Mr. Lockhart, who said the actual assistance provided by the CIA in September 1973 was negligible. “Can I measure the psychological effects of that message? I can’t.”
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