WILL ANY SOCIALIST REVOLUTION BE LET ALONE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200690009-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: January 21, 1976
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
Apprsied For Release 2 /(i HiAy -',2DP88-01350R000~200690009-0
21 January b
I
STAT
THE UNITE D SPATES AND CHILE:
Imperialism and the Overthrow of the
Allende Government. By James Petras
and Morris Morley. Monthly Review
Press. 217 pp. $ 1095.
.eivin ,fie Lei. : o
vert his regime-tb:at is, to have him cern is primarily with Washington's role,
overthrown by military force and . vio- a full examination of the forces operat-
lence-were undertaken with express ing within Chile would appear to be
White. House authorization. We know beyond the scope of their work. But
these efforts involved bribing Chilean there is an implication that U.S. inter-
plots to assassinate Army vention is virtually the entire story and
Congressmen
,
MAX GORPON Chief of Staff Rene Schneider so as to that the outcome in such cases is in-
provoke a military coup, penetration of - evitable?--unless a nation renders itself
When Salvador Allende assumed the Chilean political parties, subsidizing the impenetrable through the methods used
Chilean Presidency in November- of santi-Allende media, "destabilizing" the by Castro. Yet the efectiveness of the
1970, his Popular Unity government de- economy by financing anti-government measures taken by Washington was also
fined as its aim the replacement of "the strikes, boycotts, demonstrations, etc. determined by the means employed to
present economic structure, putting an After studying the testimony; however, counter them in Chile. This, too, needs
end to monopolistic capital, both the Senate Select Committee on Intel- examination for what. it can tell . us .
Chilean and foreign," as well as to big ligence Activities headed by Sen. prank about the dynamics of socialist trans-
landed estates, "so as to begin the con-: Church concluded that the CIA was not `'formation. To overlook the internal di-
stnrction of socialism." directly involved in the military coup mension of the Chilean struggle, to per??.
That was the platform on which the that destroyed the Allende government. ceive the socialist coalition's defeat
Allende coalition had campaigned and The Committee's conclusion has been solely in terms of U.S. intervention,
for. which a plurality of the Chilean widely interpreted to mean that .the U.S. Ieaves no room for examining possible
electorate--albeit. a slender one-had Governmenthad no direct--or major shortcomings of the Allende government
voted. Though politicians and parties ` role in the counterrevolution. That, for and the problems raised by this pro-
are not especially noted for honoring-` example, was the editorial position taken -foundly important experience. But more
( electoral promises and inaugural pledges, by The Mew York Times. on this later.
no one doubted that Allende and the In their meticulously documented
parties making up his coalition meant study, James Tetras and Morris Morley As petras and Morley describe it,
precisely what they said, and they quick- demonstrate, however, that the CIA op- the National Security Council-not the
ly demonstrated it -in practice. The eration was only one. item-and by no .CIA--was made responsible for the
Chilean regime of 1970 thus stands oilt means the most important ' one--in an Nixon-Kissinger policy to block or de-
as the' first popularly elected govern overall . program orchestrated ? from ?stroy an Allende regime. Various gov-
mint in a country with a democratic Washington for the elimination of the ernment agencies were involved, notably
tradition to undertake independently to` democratically elected Chilean Govern- the Treasury Department and' others
transform its society from capitalist to, mint. They observe that while the ex- concerned with international economic
socialist -within . a relatively brief time tent of- CIA involvement is not yet relations, as well as the Defense De-
span= :.:. __ :. t known, the . agency's activities clearly - partment. The CIA's role was one facet
complemented the larger economic proc- -of.: a policy embracing several interre- f
The process, obviously, r-I esses generated by the secret 40 Commit- elated processes, including: - diplomatic
ination of the powerful " U U.S.S. . co corpooraa , tee of the National Security Council. - - and political pressures to isolate Chile '
lions which dominated the nation's aeon Before describing these processes as 'internationally; economic squeeze to pro-
amt'. Since the U.S. Government is petras and - Morley document them, I voice dislocations and social conflict; in-
dedicated to the' proposition that one would offer . this caveat. The Allende tensification of the bond between the I
of its .primary functions is the preserva- coalition's ascension to executive power U.S. and Chilean military, including in-
tion of the freedom of American busi- h? ,,,a., ,,f d~mnerntir alrrtinnc its of nraacnc in military aid..and traininn of
ness to expand its operations with mini- -
mat - hindrance everywhere, it perceived
the Allende government as a menace to
be removed. ?
The facts concerning the CIA's role
in Allende's removal have received wide
public airing in the various official in-
vestigations and journalistic expos6s. We..
know that its extensive efforts to pre
vent Allende's election and then to sub
( .
forts to introduce measures leading to
socialism constitutionally -and its subse-
quent fate are plainly matters of enor-
mous historic significance for an appre-
ciation of the problems of revolutionary
social change in a parliamentary democ-
racy. Hence they demand the closest
study. The destruction of the regime
was the result, obviously, of the inter-
action of external (U.S.) and internal
forces. Both played a role and both
. Tetras and Morley
uire analysis
re
q
Max Cordon is a former editor of The
demonstrate the absurdity of dismissing,
New York Daily Worker currently enrolled -- , M;,nr ?art to TT C ;ntar_
in tire aocrorat program of trre insuture cur vention on the grounds that the CIA, U.S. Ambassador Nathaniel Davis se
Policy Studies, Ile is wv~1,~q Q~q d
of the Communist Party, ?ite'7~'eXtPn} 7fhct~e@ ,(yQ5ubQ$/ :d~ttl~[$111t~r501Q2QH0491~ in 1971 that a mili-
the movements of the 1930s. - the final military coup. Since their con- tart' coup could.occur only when?public,
cohfinuei
Chilean officers;. maintenance of politi-
cal and diplomatic relations, including
the pretense' of. negotiation of difer-
ences, in order to collect information,
test reactions and .keep up ties with
Allende's opposition;- provision of re-
sources, material and organizational, to
various elements of that opposition.
Both government oficlals and field -
operatives of the International Telephone
and Telegraph Company (ITT), a ma-
jor multinational corporation" working:
closely with the administration, laid out
the basic tactics in separate memoranda.