THE CHILE CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020013-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: October 11, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020013-9
lip,_` 'I J 0 iJi L
1: f. OCT 1974
t aa' current flap in this Country over CIA operations in
C h.!c is not an isolated incident. In global liarspcCtivC,
it rather, as the U.S. contribution to an
inter- pageant coinciding v: ith the first anniversary
of the overthrow of the Allende government by the mili-
ta:ry Junta.
The left had a bin stake in Allende. Chile's Coln-
niunist Party was the largest in I.;ltin America, and has
always remained faithful to the Kremlin. For the Soviet
Union and for the Chilean Party, the Allende regime
promised to be the highroad to the first Communist state
on the Latin American continent. The non=Communist
Left was no less closely involved with Allende, though
as usual it saw Chile through its resc-tinted glasses.
:Allende was going to show the world how to achieve
"democratic socialism" peacefully. The Junta's takeover
thus Struck a devastating blow at the strategy of the
Communists and at the illusions of the non-Communist
Left. Both, ever since, have been trying to re-form and
counterattack.
In Fsnopc the Left's propaganda and mass actions on
the Chile issue have been more conspicuous than in this
country. There are all sorts of committees to save the
victims of the Junta, restore democracy to Chile, help the
Chilean refugees, and so on. In the U.S. as well as in
Europe, there has been an enormous quantity of articles,
columns, and editorials expended on the crimes of tlic
Junta and the virtues of Allende. On the September 15
annivversary, 10,000 leftists .fathered in London's 'fra
fal"ar Square to denounce the Junta and the U.S. as its
Sv engali, and many thousands marched and nlacte
speeches in the other Luropean capitals. And at just
;;bout the same tinge, Representative Michael Harrill gton
Iral:eci the secret Colby testimony about the CIA in
Chile, the New Yurk Tinte.s and the l'rrslri,, utt Post
p ulblished it for the world audience, the U.S. Congress
ccV.l+liuLi an attack of hysteria on the :ubject, and tile
UN critics and enemies of the U.S. prepared to mare the
C;~ner,+l Ass+enlbty resound with Chilean echoes.
~'ti ll;!t is go ttg on, tllris, is a powerful ~?lehal pohLCal
1vat are camp;l_I tl, directed nog finally w ainst the Cllll gill
Junta but basically against the U.S., in v;hick `ioscovi,
the Communist parties, and some sections of the Left
are conscious participants, and the rest of the Left, many
liberals, much of the media, and too many members of
Congress are sincere or opportunistic dupes.
We do not clean to suggest that there are not serious
issues involved in this dispute, concerning which intelli-
gent Americans can have honest and objective differences
of opinion. There are many such: Can-and should a
democracy conduct secret operations? Is the CIA the
right sort of agency to conduct them? Cwi operations be
kept secret in a democracy? Granted the propriety of
secret operations in the abstract, were those conducted
in Chile justified? Ilow: can a democratic society super.-
vise secret operations without blowing them? We h vc
discussed these questions in the past and shall often
return to them. But in this world v;e live in, it is
always also prudent to note who is doing what to whole.
00593
Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020013-9