CHILE'S MURDERERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020109-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 109
• Publication Date: September 14, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020109-3
NIAGARA GAZETTE
14 Sep 1974
Chile's murderers
Who murdered Chile?
That was the question asked by a Niagara Gazette
editorial a.year ago, after a military coup had over-
thrown the freely-elected Chilean Marxist government
of Salvador Allende.
"The question is," the editorial asked, "who were the
murderers" of the Allende government? "Specifically,
was the United States government one ' of the mur-
! But it is more than ample proof thatthe United States 1
government was interfering in ? the internal affairs. of !
another country. This sort of clandestine interference in
other countries' internal business is bad at all times. It
was especially reprehensible in. Chile, which had the
longest history of peaceful democratic government in'
Latin America, and whose government,though the U.S.
didn't - like its Marxist tints-was unquestionably
legitimate.
IN ANOTHER EDITORIAL published at the same
time, the Gazette asked, "Is peaceful change possible?"
That editorial concluded:."If we do not help peaceful
reformers (like Allende) by treating them at least as -
well as we treat military dictatorships, then the risk of
violent revolutions,' civil wars, and guerrilla distur-
bances will grow as reformers find that violence is their
only hope of success. People will fight injustice and
oppression, Whether we like it or not. The question is
whether the United States will give them any incentive
to fight with the weapons of peace."
. The best incentive we can give, it now appears, is for
Congressto "abolish the CIA-or at least to clip its wings
so effectively that" it can never again try to "de-
stabilize" a foreign government the U.S. National
Security Council doesn't happen to like.
derers? . . . There is some suspicious circumstantial';
evidence.
The editorial cited acts of. political and economic
sabotage. against the Allende government which in
volved mysterious sources of money. It also cited the
fact that the U.S. State Department admitted it knew of
the military coup before it.happened.
The editorial concluded: "Congress should find out,
and it should not lose another minute before setting
about itt. - . If our government . . . had. a hand in the
II overthrow of Chile's government, it would be- an in-
ternational crime comparable to the Russian invasion of
Czechoslovakia. If there was such a crime, it should be
revealed and steps should be taken to see that the-U.S.
never participates in any way in such a crime again."
Many of the questions the Gazette raised were soon
being raised in Washington. But the denials from the
Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, and
others were so prompt, so all-inclusive, and so emphatic
that before long, we more than half believed them.
WE SHOULD NOT have been so credulous.
Congressman Michael Harrington. of Massachusetts
was not so credulous, and in more than a year of quiet
investigation he has at last been able to show that the
CIA, the State Department, and the National Security
Council were at least indirectly involved in the over-
throw of Allende. -.
Congressman Harrington has evidence (which the
CIA has not denied) that the CIA spent more than $8
million to finance various anti-Allende programs in
Chile. First, there was $1 million to back Allende's
opponents in the 1969 and 1970 elections that brought him
to the presidency. Then there was some $5 million for
strikes and other activities designed to "de-stabilize"
the Allende government. Another $1.5 million went to
anti-Allende candidates in the 1973 municipal elections a
few.months before the military coup (those elections,
incidentally, ended in a strong vote of confidence for
Allende). Smaller expenditures on other schemes
pushed the total above $8 million.
To be sure, this is not proof that the U.S. directly
assisted the Chilean military leaders' revolt and their
subsequent suppression of democracy in Chile. -
00798
Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09T00207RO01000020109-3