Declassifying U.S. Intervention in Chile

...Even more important, the CIA secretly poured $1.5 million into the conservative newspaper, El Mercurio-an operation, according to CIA documents, that "played a significant role in setting the stage for the military coup of September 11, 1973...

...A SECRETINODIS set of strategy papers, drawn up by an interagency Ad Hoc Working Group on Chile and presented to Kissinger in early December 1970, reported on "USG [U.S...

...We identify no vital U.S...

...Congress for forcing him to speak to the issue of Chile's atrocities...

...My evaluation is that you are a victim of all left-wing groups around the world and that your greatest sin was that you overthrew a government that was going Communist...

...The DINA was responsi- Key to Pinochet ble for hundreds of disappearances, thousands of and central to cases of vicious torture, and against him, was numerous acts of international terrorism-all docu- Condor...

...Patrick Ryan, characterized September 11, 1973 as Chile's "day of destiny," and "Our Day...

...In the same briefing paper on Chilean executions, Assistant Secretary Jack Kubisch informed Kissinger that the United States had provided a second $24 million in commodity credits to Chile for feed corn and planned to transfer two destroyers to the Chilean Navy...

...Kissinger, pushed do the vic hard by his staff, gave a speech on human rights ope before the assembly on June 9. On June 8, however, he met privately with Pinochet to brief him in advance on the content of the speech, blaming the U.S...

...Although it remains unlikely the CIA will fully comply with the directive, the declassification review is likely to shed significant light on the U.S...

...The root of the problem seemed to me to be the absolute power of DINA [the Chilean secret police] to do whatever it desired in detaining and handling suspects...

...Spai mented by mid-1976 when what docul the OAS General Assembly met in Santiago to dis- government cuss a major report on the personal involved regime's human rights violations...

...The CIA pursued a more forceful set of operations to pressure Frei...

...In addition, the president of the Export-Import Bank agreed to "cooperate fully" with Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Charles Meyer on the discontinuation of new credits and guarantees to Chile...

...officials worked behind the scenes to assure that Chile would be disqualified for a pending $21 million livestock-improvement credit and future loans...

...President Nixon had decided that an Allende regime in Chile was not acceptable to the United States," Helms told CIA officials from the Directorate of Plans-the CIA's covert operations section-and the Western Hemisphere Division...

...Capital...

...What we were told to do was to continue our efforts...

...national security agencies are likely to answer numerous outstanding questions sought by Chileans and U.S...

...Ambassador repeatedly met secretly with Frei to urge him to annul the election...

...in the effort to hold Pinochet accountable for as on Pinochet's his crimes," Michael ient in Condor--as Moffitt, the sole survivor of the car bomb that ims of those killed his wife and her supervisor, wrote to President Clinton last year...

...Publicly, the Nixon White House supported the junta by turning on the spigot of economic assistance to alleviate food shortages in Chile...

...Senate Select Committee led by Senator Frank Church in the mid-1970s...

...That review, ordered by a National Security Council "tasker" on February 1, is expected to yield hundreds of never-before-seen CIA, State and Defense Department records on "human rights abuses, terrorism and political violence" committed during Pinochet's 17year reign...

...Spain wants to know what doc's h n rr h rr ti ra uments the U.S...

...To keep the military on edge, the CIA planted false propaganda suggesting that the Chilean left planned to take control of the armed forces...

...and Rome...

...National Security Decision Directive 93, signed by Kissinger on November 9, 1970, called for the United States to "maximize pressures on the Allende government to prevent its consolidation...

...As of this writing, the few Pinochet...

...and Chilean victims, from organizations like the Institute for Policy Studies, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the National Security Archive, and from the Spanish courts-has forced the Clinton Administration to undertake a major review of its classified archives on Chile...

...We are to continue to generate maximum pressure toward this end utilizing every appropriate resource...

...prestige and interests . . . are being affected materially at a time when the U.S...

...and the degree to which the United States was involved in the overthrow of Allende...

...backyard.' " Indeed, CIA operations had failed...

...role in Chile...

...These were part of a covert black propaganda campaign which, the CIA boasted, resulted in at least 726 stories, broadcasts and editorials against an Allende presidency...

...Stance on IDB Lending to Chile"--prepared for Dr...

...Embassy, and covert operations of the CIA in Chilean politics...

...support for General "I want to set Pinochet's abuses may final- friendship imply ly be revealed...

...intelligence put the number at 13,500-summary executions, torture and disappearances of Chilean citizens appeared in the world press almost immediately following the coup...

...But a declassified Top Secret memorandum of conversation of the October 15 meeting between Kissinger, CIA deputy director of plans Thomas Karamessines and General Alexander Haig confirms that Nixon's National Security adviser actually ordered: that the Agency should continue keeping the pressure on every Allende weak spot in sight-now, after the 24th of October, after 5 November, and into the future until such time as new marching orders are given...

...CIA mobilized an interlocking political action and propaganda campaign designed both to goad and entice Frei" into the "so-called Frei re-election gambit," according to a declassified "Report on CIA Chilean Task Force Activities...

...intervention in Chile...

...At the World Bank, U.S...

...For the first time, however, the actual CIA documents on "Project FUBELT"-codename for the covert operations to destabilize the Allende government and foment a military takeover-have been publicly released...

...But when the "coup opportunity" presented itself with the October 22, 1970 assassination of General Ren6 Schneider, "Frei moved quickly away from it," according to the CIA...

...On August 18, the State Department submitted a 23-page "review of U.S...

...Recently declassified NSC records on Chile show conclusively that the Nixon Administration moved quickly to shut down multilateral and bilateral foreign aid to Chile-before Allende had completed a month in office...

...In a September 22 cable, "Frei: Transacting the Future," Korry described the President as "the central 37 S...

...According to the Senate Select Committee report, the CIA even prepared arrest lists of Allende supporters in the event of a military takeover...

...While the full story remains hidden in secret U.S...

...governarrest in London, ment has on Pinochet's personal involvement in the Spanish case Condor-as do the vicis role in Operation tims of those operations...

...The records show, however, that continuing human rights atrocities became the dominant issue in U.S.Chilean relations...

...As a result, "U.S...

...We have suffered a grievous defeat," Korry wrote, blaming the political "poverty" of the Christian Democrats and the "myopia of arrogant stupidity" of Chile's right-wing upper class...

...national interests within Chile," that assessment concluded...

...Their deaths constituted a "difficult public relations situation," as one October 21, 1973 cable stated...

...A secret "eyes only" cable the next day from CIA headquarters to the CIA station chief in Santiago, Henry Hecksher, stated that the "conclusions" of the Kissinger review of covert coup plotting had yielded this "operational guide": It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup...

...The memorandum, entitled "Chilean Executions" and based on intelligence sources in Santiago, estimated "total dead" at 1,500 from the coup...

...In testimony before Congress, and in his memoirs, Kissinger claimed that CIA coup plotting was "turned off' before Schneider's assassination...

...Overt hostility, cautioned recently declassified SECRET/SENSITIVE strategy papers prepared for Henry Kissinger on the day of Allende's inauguration, would "serve Allende's purpose of rallying the Chilean people around him in the face of the 'foreign devil.' " The third leg of U.S...

...At the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the NSC simply informed the U.S...

...It also reported on how the United States was expediting military and economic assistance to the new regime, despite concrete documentation of its atrocities...

...The public approach, according to National Security Decision Memorandum 93 titled "Policy Toward Chile," was defined as a "correct but cool" diplomatic posture...

...Siez replied that "he had remonstrated with Pinochet about DINA, so far without much success...

...The President asked the Agency to prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him...

...Embassy...

...I believe he is playing his cards with extraordinary astuteness in the circumstances...

...is required for loan approval, this will effectively bar approval of the loans...

...the extent of the relationship between the DINA and the CIA, and between U.S...

...As...

...Frei from women's groups in other Latin American nations, as well as mailings of CIA-planted news articles on Chile's peril from around the world...

...which would lead to legislative restrictions," Kissinger told the General, according to the declassified memorandum of conversation...

...The Nixon Administration, declassified U.S...

...The same process that the Administration used recently in the case of Guatemala-the release of long-held secrets of state and public repudiation of the horrors they revealwill hopefully now be applied to the case of the hidden history of U.S...

...Indeed, the holdings of the U.S...

...But efforts in this regard will continue vigorously beyond this date...

...Popper stated that "the most difficult problem we had in our embassy had to do with allegations of torture...

...For example, a secret/sensitive "eyes only" memorandum, "Genesis of Project FUBELT," dated September 16, 1970, records the first CIA meeting on the Chile operations...

...embassy cables show, was concerned primarily with two problematic American casualties: the execution of Charles Horman and Frank Terruggi in the National Stadium after the coup...

...In the United States, as you know, we are sym- pathetic with what you are trying to do here," then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger privately confided to the Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, in June 1976...

...We want to help, not undermine you...

...The government of the wants to know United States must assist tents the U.S...

...Frei did manage to confide to heavily censored CIA document reports on the assassination of ende's ambassador to the United States, Orlando Letelier...

...officials called "a triad" of policy approaches to Chile...

...During Allende's aborted tenure in office, the CIA continued attempting to foment a coup climate in Chile...

...521, officially establishing DINA as the national intelligence arm of the government, Colonel Contreras has reported exclusively to, and received orders only from, President Pinochet...

...In Chile they counted upon chachara (chatter...

...I'nternationally, the Junta's repressive image continues to plague it," states the Kissinger briefing paper, drafted on November 16, 1973...

...why Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi were killed...

...According to the memo, the Embassy staff was overruled by Ambassador David Popper, who wanted continued support along with stepped up representations on human rights...

...It would be much preferable to have this transpire prior to 24 October...

...In examining the potential threat posed by Allende, it is important to bear in mind that some of the problems foreseen for the United States in the event of his election are likely to arise no matter who becomes Chile's next president...

...1975 reveals how those "representations" were made...

...I wanted to tell you about this...

...Three months after Kissinger's tate-A-tate with Pinochet, agents of the Chilean secret police detonated a car-bomb in Washington, D.C., killing former ambassador Orlando Letelier and an associate, Ronni Moffitt...

...According to a SECRET/NODIS "Status Report on U.S...

...A declassified cable, recording a discreet conversation between Chilean Minister of Economic Coordination, Raul Siez, and Ambassador Popper on April 6, Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford Administrations, was a strong supporter of Chile's military regime...

...Kissinger did ask Pinochet to "alert" the United States as to the improvements on human rights he planned to make to give the Ford Administration "ammunition" in its fight over legislation restricting aide to Chile...

...The Kubisch report to Kissinger cited "heavy" media criticism and congressional inquiries on these two cases...

...of the Chileans know...

...Such an effort would, in addition, be highly divisive...

...Within 48 hours, according to a secret summary of the meeting, the CIA was to provide an action plan to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger...

...Government," CIA director Helms wrote in a "Postmortem on the Chilean Presidential Election...

...The analysts concluded, however, that "such tactics are likely to boomerang for lack of support or sympathy from other OAS members...

...Government showing in the process...

...General Pinochet's role in Operation Condor was key to his arrest in Britain, and is central to the Spanish case against him...

...If the White House follows through with a major declassification of documents-as it has recently done on Guatemala and El Salvador-a long hidden history of massive U.S...

...These are but two of many documents that have emerged recently on Washington's role in supporting General Pinochet, and on the human rights atrocities committed during his rule...

...An April 15, 1975 Defense Intelligence Agency report-"DINA Expands Operations and Facilities"--clearly stated their relationship: since the promulgation of Decree Law No...

...paid for military spokesmen to travel around the world to promote the new regime...

...Korry's cables show that he viewed then-President Eduardo Frei as the only possible obstacle to Allende's ascension to the presidency...

...On October 15, I called off Track II before it was ever implemented," Kissinger again falsely asserts in his new book, Years of Renewal...

...government] consultation with selected Latin American governments I . . to promote their sharing of our concern over Chile...

...and would project an unfavorable public image...

...Strategy Concerning Chile's Future Participation in the Organization of American States" seriously weighed the possibility of forcing the Chileans to withdraw or be expelled from the OAS...

...Frei refused to influence the Christian Democrat party to block Allende's ratification...

...In February 1974, Assistant Secretary Kubisch himself raised these cases with Chilean Foriegn Minister Ismael Huerta, according to a declassified memorandum of conversation, "in the context of the need to be careful to keep relatively small issues in our relationship from making our cooperation more difficult...

...Washington's warm reception of the military junta was the antithesis of its approach to the Popular Unity government...

...citizens alike: details on the still unsolved disappearances after the coup...

...In the absence of gross provocation by the Allende government, they warned Kissinger, efforts to exclude Chile from the OAS: would be most unlikely to win sufficient support...

...A number of cables focused on what Korry skeptically described as "an undercover organizational operation" in which the Chilean Congress would vote on October 24 for National Party candidate Jorge Alessandri, "who would renounce the presidency and thus provoke new elections in which Frei would run...

...Leadership depends upon, if I may use Spanish, cabeza, corazon and cojones (brains, heart and balls)," Korry concluded his cable...

...I want to see our relations and friendship improve," Kissinger concluded the meeting, according to the memorandum of conversation...

...In response to calls by Moffitt, members of Congress and other human rights advocates, in February Clinton's NSC distributed a "tasker" on the president's behalf to the CIA, State and Defense Departments' and other key agencies, ordering "a compilation and review for release of all documents that shed light on human rights abuses, terrorism and other acts of political violence during and prior to the Pinochet era in Chile...

...C (j hile's coup d'dtat was close to perfect," states a "SitRep" (situation report) from "C.,the U.S...

...S (' alvador Allende's election cannot be charged to lack of early warning," states a "CIA "Postmortem on the Chilean Presidential Election" drafted for Henry Kissinger in November 1970...

...Covert funds were funnelled into the Chilean congressional campaigns to bolster anti-Allende politicians, according to a still-heavily censored summary of covert political action prepared by CIA director William Colby two days after the coup...

...used its own media assets to cast the junta in a positive light...

...The secret situation report also stated that junta President Pinochet had ruled out "any time table for turning Chile back to the civilians...

...Stamped "SECRET/SENSITIVE," "EYES ONLY," "NODIS" (no distribution to other agencies) and "NOFORN" (no foreign distribution), the documents include State Department cables, CIA memoranda and National Security Council (NSC) option papers...

...A 26-page "Study of Options for U.S...

...The pressures the CIA brought on Frei included offering substantial sums of money to his "re-election" campaign, bribing fellow Christian Democrats to prod him and oppose Allende, and orchestrating visits and calls from respected lead- Al AIh ers abroad...

...would, if sponsored by the U.S., be a decisive and dramatic act of open hostility toward Chile...

...several years chronicle dra- to the West in om matic events in Chile--starting with the election of Salvador Allende in September 1970, and moving on to the coup and the early years of military rule, including Chile's involvement in international terrorism in the mid-1970s when the secret police conducted assassination missions in Argentina, Washington, D.C...

...Stay alert, and do what we could to contribute to the eventual achievement of the objectives and purposes of Track II...

...intervention in Chile and extensive U.S...

...After a long investigation, the FBI determined that DINA, supported by the secret police in Paraguay and Argentina, had carried out the murders as part of Operation Condor-a network of Southern Cone intelligence services that tracked, abducted and assassinated opponents of their regimes...

...Track II was never really ended," Thomas Karamessines, the CIA official in charge of the Chile operations, testified before the Senate Select Committee in 1975...

...You did a great service to the West in overthrowing Allende...

...CIA operations constituted the covert leg of what U.S...

...It is known, however, that the 40 Committee, chaired by Dr...

...The political action program had "only one purpose," CIA Director Richard Helms told the National Security Council: to induce President Frei to prevent Allende's election by the Congress on 24 October, and, failing that, to support-by benevolent neutrality at the least and conspiratorial benediction at the mosta military coup which would prevent Allende from taking office...

...Embassy reports (obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the author) reveal a frantic, minute-by-minute reaction to the events of September 4, 1970...

...The U.S...

...In an effort to influence Chile's presi- do dent through his wife, the CIA instigated a series dec of telegrams to Mrs...

...and financed the military's new advisors to prepare a new economic plan for the country...

...Wi dozen documents that have been released over the last undermine you...

...This cument, among others, is currently under review for full lassification...

...several top-ranking military officers that he would not oppose a coup, with a guarded implication he might even welcome one," Helms reported to Kissinger...

...intelligence and specific members of Chile's military...

...Unable to simply veto loans, the State Department's Bureau of Inter-American Affairs prepared a series of questions for a World Bank delegation to pose to authorites in Santiago in an effort to show that Allende's economic policies did not meet criteria for credits...

...The Executive Director will routinely and discreetly convey these questions to Bank staff members," another NSC "status report" noted, "as to insure adequate attention to them by the team visiting Chile and by other staff elements within the Bank, but without the hand of the U.S...

...The speech is not aimed at Chile...

...U.S...

...Human rights abuses, he said, were the result of the "fascist advisors" to the president-a veiled reference to DINA chieftain Manuel Contreras...

...Salvador Allende became the first democratically elected Marxist head of state in the history of Latin America-despite the opposition of the U.S...

...A confidential July 1, 1975 NSC memorandum, for example, revealed a mutiny inside the U.S...

...representative that he did not have authority to vote for loans to Chile...

...In 1968, CIA analysts first anticipated that Allende's Popular Unity coalition could win in Chile...

...The assassination has become the most infamous act of international terrorism ever to take place in the U.S...

...Contreras, jailed in 1995 for his role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, has told Chile's Supreme Court that Pinochet "approved all major missions" of the DINA...

...On election day, Korry sent no fewer u did a great service than 18 election updates rthrowing Allende...

...They disclose new details on what was already known about human rights abuses under General Pinochet, the decisions of the Nixon and Ford White House, activities of the U.S...

...For years historians have debated if such a blockade existed, or whether Allende's socialist economic policies led to a loss of economic credit...

...The still-classified documents include thousands of pages of secret Defense Intelligence Agency biographies on Generals Pinochet and Contreras, State Department Intelligence and Research studies on human rights atrocities in the mid-1970s, and CIA cable traffic on Operation Condor...

...The report, written by Marine Lt...

...He is editor, most recently, of The Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba (The New Press, 1998...

...Dozens of cables written by Ambassador Edward Korry--known in the Department of State as "Korrygrams" for their e ro e our relations and unique language and ,ve," Kissinger told undiplomatic opin- ions-flowed to Washwant to help, not ington...

...In a secret September 9 cable, titled "One and Only One Hope for Chile," Korry argued that "the future of Chile would be decided by only one man: Frei...

...Nevertheless, U.S...

...an affirmative vote by the U.S...

...would alienate many of our Latin American supporters...

...Over the next three weeks, the Ambassador sent a constant series of SECRET/NOFORN reports with such titles as "No Hopes for Chile," and "Some Hope for Chile...

...A number of officers in the Embassy at Santiago have written a dissent," according to a memo prepared for National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, "strongly supported by the Policy Planning office in ARA, calling for cutting off all economic and military assistance to Chile until the human rights situation improved...

...I can do no less, without producing a reaction in the U.S...

...By 1975, both in Congress and within the executive branch itself, human rights advocates were highly critical of the Ford Administration's continuing support for the Pinochet government...

...policy and strategy in the event of an Allende victory" to the White House...

...Three weeks after the coup, the Nixon Administration authorized $24 40 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 40REPORT ON CHILE million in commodity credits to buy wheat-credits that had been denied to Allende's government...

...On March 25, June 27, and August 7, 1970, Henry Kissinger chaired meetings of the 40 Committee--a high-level interagency group that authorized covert operations to "denigrate Allende and his Popular Unity coalition," as one CIA summary prepared for Kissinger two days after the coup described them...

...The task, as the CIA put it, was to use propaganda and pressure "to recast Frei as a political personality, in a role demanding decisiveness and 'machismo' to a degree that, thus far, had eluded him...

...can ill afford problems in an area that has been traditionally accepted as the U.S...

...At the height of the military regime's repression, according to a recently declassified memorandum of conversation, Kissinger told Pinochet that the junta was "a victim of all leftwing groups around the world" and that Washington "wishes you well...

...But according to Contreras himself, and U.S...

...The Agency's extensive efforts to promote a military coup in Chile-known as Track II-were revealed by the U.S...

...Kissinger was fully aware of what General Pinochet was "trying to do" in Chile...

...Kissinger several weeks after Allende's inauguration-"the U.S...

...Kissinger, immediately authorized the CIA to "assist the junta in gaining a more positive image, both at home and abroad," according to documents seen by the Senate Select Committee...

...policy has come to be known as the "invisible blockade" of loans and credits to VOL XXXII, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1999 39REPORT ON CHILE A Kissinger directive called on the United States to "maximize pressures on the Allende government to prevent its consolidation...

...Covert agents also maintained close liaison with disgruntled Chilean military officers...

...Reports of mass arrests-U.S...

...o 'n 3 November 1970, Dr...

...A secret briefing paper prepared for the Secretary of State after the September Peter Kornbluh is a senior analyst at the National Security Archive and a member of the NACLA Editorial Board...

...The Nixon Administration also moved to isolate Allende's government diplomatically around the world...

...on the vote count...

...Support for military forces or intelligence units which engaged in violent and widespread repression was wrong," President Clinton stated in Guatemala City on March 10, "and the United States must not repeat that mistake...

...policy toward the military junta, by contrast, was designed to alleviate pressure on the generals so they could quickly consolidate power...

...On September 5, he reported that he could hear "the mounting roar of Allendistas acclaiming their victory" from the streets...

...The CIA helped the junta write the "White Book of Change of Government in Chile" to justify the coup...

...11, 1973 coup d'6tat reported that in the 19 days following the coup, the new military junta had summarily executed 320 individuals--three times as many people as was then publicly acknowledged...

...military group in Valparafso...

...Depayrams efo Sttheirs 37 Vot XXXII, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1999REPORT ON CHILE figure" whose "moves determine the pace, the direction and the form of a situation that has far more flux than 99.99 pct...

...government vaults in Washington, public pressure in the aftermath of Pinochet's stunning arrest in London on October 16, 1998--from the families of U.S...

...Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank understands that he will remain uninstructed until further notice on pending loans to Chile...

...intelligence reports at the time, General Pinochet exercised close control of the secret police operations...

...CIA records on clandestine operations in the days following the coup remain highly classified...