CIA AND CHILE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020120-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 120
• Publication Date: September 11, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020120-0
""I"Xi4U t;UIE NC1 MuNij
11 SEP 1974
CIA and Chile
Now the facts are coming to
light. The Central Intelligence
Agency was not the innocent by-
stander in Chile that the United
States Government tried to imply
it was at the time of the overthrow
of Salvador Allende.
The CIA, it turns out, engaged
for years in clandestine activities
against the late Chilean Presi-
dent. CIA director William Colby
acknowledged in secret testimony
to the Congress that some $8
million had been authorized by a
high-level intelligence -committee
headed by Henry Kissinger to
"destabilize" Allende's Marxist
government and bring about its
downfall after 1970.
The disclosures are shocking
and dictate the urgent need for a
public scrutiny of national secu-
rity policies, a reform of CIA
functions, and a system of strict
accountability for CIA actions.
They also point again to the decep-
tion practiced by previous admin-
istrations.
The State Department sticks by
its guns. It stated this week. it
backs the testimony of high offi-
cials who previously told Congress
that the U.S. had not intervened in
the domestic affairs of Chile after
Allende's election. ,
Clearly the full story has yet to
be told. In light' of the developing
dispute we favor full-scale public
hearings into the CIA's role in
Chile, as called for by Congress-
man Michael Harrington.
This is not the first time the CIA
has been involved in questionable
covert operations against foreign
states. Its record includes the
aborted Bay of Pigs invasion, the
secret war in Laos, and efforts to
overthrow governments in Iran
and Guatemala. More recently, on
the domestic front, it furnished
the White House "plumbers"-with
technical aid and a psychiatric
profile of Daniel Ellsberg - acts
that violated its mandate.
The record is disturbing.
However distasteful, clandes-,
tine operations sometimes are
necessary. If a foreign power, for
instance, is engaged in activities
in a country that could impair
American interests, it stands to
reason the U.S. must know what it
is up to. But gathering informa-
tion and exposing Communist sub-
version, say, are one thing. At-
tempts to undermine or overthrow
legitimate governments are quite
another.
A distressing aspect of all this is
the double standard which the
U.S. has set for its international
conduct. It apparently is per-.
missible for the CIA to maneuver
against local governments which
Washington does not like - this is
deemed in the national interest.
But when the U.S. declines to use
its influence to dissuade repres-
sive regimes from antidemocratic
excesses - as in South Korea or
Greece - this is justified as "non-
interference" in another country's
internal affairs.
If the CIA is permitted to abet
the disintegration of constitu-
tionally elected governments -
however unpalatable their ideo-
logy - does not the U.S. lose its
moral authority to condemn sim-
ilar subversive action by a Com-
munist power?
The Allende regime was hardly
a model for Latin America. But
the late President did carry on his
Marxist experiment within the
constitutional framework. If
Washington chose not to render
help - except to the Chilean
military - that at least was an
overt, if debatable, position.
But by colluding in the effort to
undermine the Chilean Govern-
ment by covert means, Washing-
ton has only helped destroy the
credibility of the argument that
Communists should participate in
the democratic process rather
than seek power through violent
means.
00855
Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020120-0