How Did The Nixon Administration Actively Undermined The Allende Government

Post World War II, US policy was tailored to the demands of the Cold War with the USSR, and successive administrations actively worked to undermine communist governments from Indonesia to Iran to Cuba. When Salvador Allende, a professed socialist with strong communist sympathies won the election in Chile in 1970, he was treated by President Nixon and his national security advisor Henry Kissinger as a grave threat to the US. Chile was, after all, in the US’s backyard, and if Allende was allowed to remain as president, the USSR could conceivably make inroads into Latin America, threatening the US’s geopolitical interests both in the Western hemisphere and worldwide.1 This paper argues that the Nixon administration actively undermined the Allende government by working with anti-communist opposition parties and the Chilean army. It provided funds for anti-Allende propaganda, demonstration and strikes to create chaos in the country so that an army takeover of the government could be justified as a means

Moreover, he said military action would be a violation of American principles because Allende does not pose a grave threat to the US.10 However, on 16 October 1970, the CIA Deputy Director for plans Thomas Karamessines conveyed Kissinger's order to the CIA's Station Chief in Santiago: “it is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup.” Karamessines also urged that the “American hand” should be hidden.11 Subsequently, the CIA established contact with several groups of military plotters. On 22 October 1970, one of the groups attempted to kidnap General Rene Schneider, the uncooperative commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army. Schneider was shot dead. The CIA had been in contact with that group of plotters. However, a week before it happened, they pulled back support for the plan. The coup plotting ended and the attempt to get Frei elected