On the morning of September 11th, 1973, Pinochet and his military began their attack on the presidential palace, La Moneda. “Inside La Moneda, Allende then donned a metal helmet” and stood his ground awaiting his demise. Over the span of two hours “the palace was hit by at least eight bombs…the resistance within the palace exchanged fire with [Pinochet’s military]” and battle ensued, “yet these efforts were in vain.” By 2:00 PM that day, Pinochet and his men stormed the palace, only to find Allende dead. Following the coup d’état, Augusto named himself president of the Government Junta of Chile, thus establishing a military dictatorship in Chile. While Chile’s new dictatorship had occurred in favor of the United States and “looked like Nixon’s
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Although all corners of the world from “Berlin to Tanzania, Paris to Rome, and Montreal to Honduras…pointed at the United States as the architect of Allende’s downfall,” Tanya Harmer’s Allende’s Chile and the Inter-American Cold War, is one of many voices that argue for blamed to be shared amongst multiple parties. Harmer deduces that the cataloging of one “wrongdoing should not automatically lead to us into the trap of thinking that the other side was passive and blameless or vice versa.” Essentially, forces beyond the United States equally took part in the tragedies of Allende and Chile. Correspondingly, Harmer states that the United States’ reoccurring concern with its image on the world stage, outweighed its desire to overtly overthrow Allende. Additionally, evidence presented in CIA declassified documents and memorandums from Kissinger’s office further support her analysis that the United States “didn’t do it…[the US] helped them…created the conditions as great as possible.” Firstly, a memo sent to Kissinger’s office by a key Officer of Chilean Military group asking “if the U.S government would come to the aid of the Chilean military if the situation became difficult”, assuring that the “planned action against President Allende was a Chilean operation”. The memo implies a heavy role on …show more content…
The Church Report, is documentation of a federal investigation conducted in 1975, two years after the coup. In conclusion, the report stated that there is an insufficient amount of evidence to conclude that the United States was directly involved in the 1973 coup. It also concluded that based on evidence, the U.S originally planned a military coup, but “after 1970 it adopted a policy both overt and covert, of opposition to Allende” yet “remained in intelligence contact with the Chilean military, including officers who were participating in coup plotting.” main objective was to stir up trouble and bring attention to the instability of the Allende Government in hopes of intervention. This can be seen after General Schneider’s assassination when the CIA begins to turn its attention to economic sabotage. More specifically, when the CIA begins to give funds to private businesses. These private sectors in turn passed the money to their anti-government strikers; the strikers ended up striking for almost three months. The prolonged strikes were met with police intervention from the Allende government, therefore causing further tension in Chile. The Church Report acknowledges that these prolonged strikes “could not have been maintained on the basis of union funds.” Although the CIA claims that the funds were meant for private sectors and not for strikers,
Although all corners of the world from “Berlin to Tanzania, Paris to Rome, and Montreal to Honduras…pointed at the United States as the architect of Allende’s downfall,” Tanya Harmer’s Allende’s Chile and the Inter-American Cold War, is one of many voices that argue for blamed to be shared amongst multiple parties. Harmer deduces that the cataloging of one “wrongdoing should not automatically lead to us into the trap of thinking that the other side was passive and blameless or vice versa.” Essentially, forces beyond the United States equally took part in the tragedies of Allende and Chile. Correspondingly, Harmer states that the United States’ reoccurring concern with its image on the world stage, outweighed its desire to overtly overthrow Allende. Additionally, evidence presented in CIA declassified documents and memorandums from Kissinger’s office further support her analysis that the United States “didn’t do it…[the US] helped them…created the conditions as great as possible.” Firstly, a memo sent to Kissinger’s office by a key Officer of Chilean Military group asking “if the U.S government would come to the aid of the Chilean military if the situation became difficult”, assuring that the “planned action against President Allende was a Chilean operation”. The memo implies a heavy role on …show more content…
The Church Report, is documentation of a federal investigation conducted in 1975, two years after the coup. In conclusion, the report stated that there is an insufficient amount of evidence to conclude that the United States was directly involved in the 1973 coup. It also concluded that based on evidence, the U.S originally planned a military coup, but “after 1970 it adopted a policy both overt and covert, of opposition to Allende” yet “remained in intelligence contact with the Chilean military, including officers who were participating in coup plotting.” main objective was to stir up trouble and bring attention to the instability of the Allende Government in hopes of intervention. This can be seen after General Schneider’s assassination when the CIA begins to turn its attention to economic sabotage. More specifically, when the CIA begins to give funds to private businesses. These private sectors in turn passed the money to their anti-government strikers; the strikers ended up striking for almost three months. The prolonged strikes were met with police intervention from the Allende government, therefore causing further tension in Chile. The Church Report acknowledges that these prolonged strikes “could not have been maintained on the basis of union funds.” Although the CIA claims that the funds were meant for private sectors and not for strikers,