NEW CHARGES REPORTED IN CIA PLOT ON ALLENDE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830027-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 28, 2012
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: November 23, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

I ?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830027-9
ARTICLE A? M THE WASHINGTON POST
ON n as 23 NCVFWBER 1982
New Charges Reported
In CIA Plot on Allende
By John Dinges
epKkl to The Wui ngton Poet
CIA activities to prevent Salvador
Allende from assuming the Chilean
presidency in 1970 were more exten-
sive than previously acknowledged in-
official accounts, author Seymour M.
Hersh asserts in the December issue
of Atlantic.Monthly.-
Hersh charges, 'based on' the ac-
count of an unnamed "close associ-
ate" of then-CIA director Richard
Helms, that President Nixon "spe-
cifically ordered the CIA to get rid of
Allende"-an order that Hersh con-
tends amounted to a go-ahead to as-
sassinate Allende if necessary.
"Helms -told the associate there
accounts from a half-dozen alleged
participants in the Chile operations,
including two deep-cover CIA oper-
atives- whose identities were previ-
ously unknown.
The agents, called "false-flaggers"
by the CIA because of their use of'
false Latin American passports as
cover, were veteran agents assigned
to give CIA money and instructions
to "extreme right-wing terrorists," in-
cluding cashiered Gen. Roberto
Viaux and other Chilean military
leaders plotting against Allende,
Hersh writes.
Viaux led a kidnaping attempt
Oct. 22, 1970, that resulted in the
murder of the head of the Chilean
was no doubt in his mind at the time armed forces, Gen. Rene
what Nixon meant," Hersh writes.'~ Schneideroperation the`'CIA
The "close associate," -'Her b Iris disavowed'
writes, was relating Helms' personals Hersh quotes tie'1:~ miiit at-
account of a Sept. 15, 1970, Oval Of- tache in Chile at the time, Col. Paul
fice meeting of Nixon and then na-v C. Wimert Jr.,- as saying he ."figured
tional security adviser Henry A- they [the false-flaggers] had ,..'been
Kissinger, who the source said later sent . to: Santiago; to arrange for Al-
"pressured [Helms] again on the sub= ? lende's death:" ''` . ?.. '= Ki
ject." =`According to the article, an 'aide in
Helms testified in 1975 'hearings `the National Security Council'Yeo-
before the Senate Intelligence Com- man Charles E: Radford, told`Hersh
mittee that Nixon's orders at that- 'that he saw option papers,that;dis-
meeting Teferred to Allende's over-. cussed ways to assassinate Allende.
throw and did not "in his mind" in- Hersh's article does not cite any ev-
clude assassination. idence that plans to kill Allende
Hersh's account, which is adapted were put into operation.
from his forthcoming biography of
Kissinger, does not contain the kind
of smoking gun evidence that would
drastically alter the picture drawn in
the 1975 Senate hearings.-
Testimony then revealed that the
CIA financed an unsuccessful covert
propaganda campaign against Al-
lende's election, and later partici-
pated in venous plots with Chilean
politicians and military leaders to
keep him from taking office after his
plurality victory in September, 1970.
The article, however, has direct
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830027-9