MOYNIHAN, CHILE AND CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440170-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 170
• Publication Date: September 19, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/12/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440170-9
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1
The. word is out that Ambas-
sador Daniel Patrick Moynihan
has expressed in a secret cable
the dismay with which he,
meets the news that the CIA
attempted to "interfere" with
the election of Chilean Presi-
dent Salvador Allende. Moyni-
han is a man of great principle,
and he is especially embar-.
rassed because he personally
reassured Mrs. Gandhi that the
United States was not inter-
fering with Chilean politics.
A State Department official,
while not conceding that we
have done anything improper
in Chile, acknowledged that
Moynihan was indignnt, but
th.en remarked that "Pat is
always-indignant." He has a lot
to be indignant about.
'TZ CLA-CHILE controversy'
is hugely subtle and interest-
ing. Last year Moynihan per-
suaded the United States to
tear up several billion dollars
in notes owed by India to the
United States.
Now India is a terribly mis-
znana.;ed country, and the pov-
erty d t re -.cpal,ing. There are
i;.%ianS ( _?snow one, a very
prominent ir.dian) who believe
that U.S. oid to the govern-
ments of India during the post-
war period was arrant interfer-
ence in Indian politics. We took
the position that we were mere-
ly performing humanitarian
deeds.
I do not doubt that was our
motive. And I do not doubt that-
was our motive in attempting
to help the resisters to Allende.
Moreover, if we had succeeded,
Chile would have been spared
the miserable, dirty, despotic
tribulations it is enduring at
this moment.
That doesn't, of course, dis-
pose of the point that State
Department officials apparent-
ly misled 'congressional com-
mittees. Put that aside, for the
moment, as a democratic
dilemma`
IT IS A PITY that critics of
CIA involvement in Chile do
not put the situation in context.
It is made to appear as though
we uniquely desired to fashion
the will of the Chilean people.
In the year before Allende
came to power:
1) Soviet and East European
films were shown regularly in
commercial theaters, univer-
sities, clubs, and on television
-paid icr by the Soviets.
2) The Soviet Union pub-
lished a picture magazine
edited for Chilean consump-
tion, with a circulation of 10,-
STAT
nih- an 'Lo"B'112 andf-1,A_
000. (In U.S. terms, that would
be the equivalent of 200,000.)
3) The Communist party of
Chile, under Soviet domination,
produced a bimonthly theoret-
ical journal and a Gaily news-
paper.
4) The Soviet Union, Cuba,
Czechoslovakia and Poland
participated in trade fairs in-
cluding cultural and technical
exhibits, including one exhibit
of over 500 'Marxist books
contributed by the USSR. One
exhibit was devoted to "Yankee
aggression in. Vietnam."
5) Communist news agencies
included China. Cuba, East
Germany, Tass, and Novosti.
6) The USSR broadcasts 73
hours per week in Latin Amer-
ica, East European countries
84 hours, Communist China 23
hours. And Cuba 163 hours.
7) Soviet officials made
available program tapes to
provincial radio stations. One
=station carried a weekly pro.
gram produced by Chilean stu-
dents at Lumumba University.
The Communist party conduc-
ted regular programs on a
Santiago station and on six
Provincial stations.
VvHA i SHOULD the United
States do, under such ci--c?m-
stances? In another connection,
Ambassador Moynihan, irt+
dignant over America's supine
presence in the United Nations,
cabled prescriptions not in-
applicable in attempting to
understand the Chilean situa-
tion. "There was a saying
around the Kennedy White
House: don't get mad, get even
. what has come over
us? Forget about a slander on
our honor? ',That have we
become? Any country that does
not support us on a matter of
consequence not only damages
the United Nations, but must
quietly be brought to--under-
stand it is damaging itself. I
looked down the list of these
who go along by abstaining. In
half of them the present
regimes would collapse without
American support or American
acquiescence. To hell with it.
"Something spgcinca?ly bad
should happen to each one of
them, and when it has hap-
pened they should be told that
Americans take the honor of
their democracy most serious-
ly, and never issue warnings to
those w ,o would besmirch that
honer. `;-'hen that happens,
sometain; extraordinarily dis-
agreeab e happens next, and
t- e victim is left to figure it cut
fcc huh ei ."
But cr that sort of tt`ting.
don't bring in the CIA?
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/12/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440170-9