Declassified documents detail US role in Chile

On September 11, the National Security Archive, a Washington-based non-profit research group, posted declassified US government documents on its web site which detail US attempts from 1970 to 1973 to prevent the Socialist Party's Salvador Allende from taking office in Chile, and later to remove him from office.

The documents include handwritten notes made by the director of central intelligence Richard Helms at a White House meeting with President Richard Nixon, attorney general John Mitchell and national security adviser Henry Kissinger on September 15, 1970 — shortly after Allende's September 4 victory in Chile's presidential election.

The notes state: "1 in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile! ... worth spending ... not concerned risks involved ... no involvement of embassy ... $10,000,000 available, more if necessary ... full-time job — best men we have ... game plan ... make the economy scream ... 48 hours for plan of action."

After Allende's November 3, 1970 inauguration, Helms sent a report to General Alexander Haig, Kissinger's military aide, warning him about the "result" of Allende's rise to power as "the first democratically elected Marxist head of state in the history of Latin America."

"US prestige and interest in Latin America and, to some extent, elsewhere are being affected materially at a time when the US can ill afford problems in an area that has traditionally been accepted as the US 'backyard'", wrote Helms.

The declassified documents are on the NSA web site at <http://www.seas. gwu.edu/nsarchive>.

[From Weekly News Update on the Americas. See accompanying article.]

From GLW issue 334