Interesting theory. I'd love if it were true. Any conversation with a Leftist longer than 10 minutes and Salvador Allende's name will come up in the long list of bad things America has done in the past. Usually inserted somewhere between 'East Timor' and 'illegal bombing of Cambodia', but always right before 'support for the Shah'--meant to prove that policy X (insert policy here) is also bad and therefore America 'is the real biggest terrorist in the world'--yada, yada, yada.

From Swimming Against the Red Tide:

The fact is that Allende was not a suicide, he was not killed by the military that took the power in september, 1973. During their assault against La Moneda palace, Chilean president was cowardly murdered by one of the Cuba agent that were in charge of his protection

He also links to this article about a new book by Christopher Andrews and Vasili Mitrokhin The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. The book claims that now open Soviet archives show that the much of the right-wing paranoia about self-proclaimed indigenous movementes really being directed from Moscow were, in fact, not so much paranoia as based in fact.

The book claims:

• The KGB documents record actual and proposed payments to Chile's Salvador Allende totaling $420,000 both before and after his election as president in 1970.

• Costa Rica's José ''Pepe'' Figueres received $300,000 from the KGB for his 1970 presidential campaign and $10,000 afterward.

• The KGB ''trained and financed'' the Sandinistas who seized the National Palace in Managua and dozens of hostages in 1978. A senior KGB official was briefed on the plan on the eve of the raid, led by Edén Pastora, also known as Commander Zero...

The book describes Allende as ''by far the most important of the KGB's confidential contacts in South America,'' because he was a democratically-elected Marxist and Castro's ally. In KGB lexicon, a confidential contact is more like a friendly source, not an agent.

But Allende's KGB file says the agency maintained ''systematic contact'' with him since 1961, the book adds. One report says, "He stated his willingness to cooperate on a confidential basis . . . since he considered himself a friend of the Soviet Union.''

So while the Nixon administration and CIA were working diligently to prevent his election in 1970, and to oust him afterward, the KGB also was working hard to put him and keep him in power, the book says.

To be honest, I'm not up to speed on the Pinochet junta. Too many people I respect seem to think that toppling Allende was not a good thing. So, regardless of who pulled the trigger, the fact remains that the U.S. actively helped in the overthrow of a democratically elected President. Just because he was a Commie does not mean he was a threat to the U.S. Remember, during the same period Italy had communist governments yet remained loyal to NATO.

I'm open, though, to hearing opposing viewpoints.

Hat tip h0mi who found the link at Babalu Blog.

Posted by: Rusty at 05:18 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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