DISCUSSION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CHILEAN SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT (CSM) WITH DDO AND DDI SPECIALISTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79R01099A002000080003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2005
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 11, 1974
• Content Type: MFR

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SUBJECT: Discussion of the Importance of the Chilean
Solidarity Movement (CSM) with DDO and DDI Specialists
1. I convened a group from OCI together with
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a
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1 to discuss CSM and its importance in Europe in the
ig t o rnold Silver's suggestion to the DCI that the US would
benefit substantially by disassociating itself from the Chilean
government and condemning the leader's brutality. The talking
paper for the discussion was the memorandum of 29 November, pre-
pared in DDO by at my request.
2. The OCI analysts all argue that this paper overstates
the importance of the CSM as a rallying point for anti-US acti-
vities in Europe, though no one denies that it has some importance.
-- It is probably most significant in Italy, Portugal
and Scandinavia; least so in Britain and Germany.
France is in between.
-- In all cases, OCI argues that local considerations
and local issues dictate whether socialists and com-
munists come together or stay apart far more than
geologically remote issues like Chile.
-- OCI also argues that no European government (as
distinct from certain private organizations) has
shown itself very exercized about US policy toward
Chile and none have exerted strong or recurrent
pressures on the US to do anything.
-- The qualified exception is Portugal where the leaders
of the Provisional government show a marked sensitivity
that US policy toward Chile may be a model for US
policy toward Portugal.
-- In most cases, however, the real lesson that the left
has drawn from Chile is not the wickedness of the US
but rather the lesson that is exemplified in the
"historic compromise" of the PCI that they should
accommodate to the Christian Democrats in a junior-
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partner relationship for the foreseeable future or
the lesson apparently drawn by the Soviets that Western
European communist parties should not rush to gain
control because of the risks.
-- Having said all this, no one denies that the Chile ques-
tion has indeed replaced Vietnam as a convenient grounds
for rallying anti-US sentiment almost everywhere in
Europe and especially for emphasizing the common front
between communists, socialists and left-wing Christians
-- three groups who can agree on almost nothing else.
-- There is no respected voice raised in defense of the
Chilean junta or of US policy toward it anywhere in
Europe. The few voices who do undertake such a defense
are the kind of supporters who don't do us any good.
-- Finally, it was suggested that any representations from
the DCI on this matter might best take the form of ways
in which the interests of the Intelligence Community, and
in particular the Agency, have been hardened by the
Chilean vulnerability. Harmful affects break down into
two types: One consists of our friends who genuinely
disapprove of Chile and US policy toward it and are
therefore less disposed than formerly to cooperate with
us; and those who are becoming persuaded that the US can-
not keep a secret (as a result of revelations in our own
press and who therefore get nervous about cooperating
with the US on their own).
3. I told the group I would prepare a memo for the Director
reflecting the main points in this discussion and the principle
practical points emerging from it, and would forward that to.him
together with the factual roundup prepared by DDO.
D
National Intelligence Officer
for Western Europe
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ILLEGIB
SUBJECT: Ramifications of Chilean Solidarity Movemen
in Western Europe
The Chilean solidarity question has replaced the Vietnamese
solidarity question as the principle rallying point in Western
Summary
continuing cooperation with communist parties and front organizations
iritersine propaganda campaign which has been mounted to capitalize
on them, there is practically no voice raised in Europe in defense
of the Chilean Junta or in defense of the role the United States
is said to have played in Chile in the recent past. The Chilean
1'example" is being cited to create a climate in Portugal, for
instance, in which U.S. initiatives are immediately suspect.
The Chilean campaign is also being used as the newest mechanism
through which European non-communists are being brought into
in Helsinki and London. Because o t e strong emo ona un e
currents connected with the Chilean issue and the extensive and
Europe for leftist forces bent upon denigrating the United States
and reducing its influence in Europe. In the fourteen months
since the September 1973 coup d'etat, an extensive organizational
network has been built up in Europe, supported and funded both by
the Communist countries (the USSR, East Germany and Cuba are the
major supporters) and by Western organizations. Major centers
cf exile activity are in Paris and Rome with supporting elements
f h ti 1 d r-
in efforts which are basically anti-American and are intended to
cast doubts on the United States' reliability, probity, and dedi-
cation to democratic principles. End Summary
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