CIA's September 1973 Chilean Military Coup Revisited

As partially dramatized in the 1980s Costa-Gavras film Missing, about 20,000 Chileans were killed and 30,000 were arrested by the CIA’s Chilean military in the weeks following the September 11, 1973 coup in Chile.

In an essay that appeared in the 1978 book Uncloaking The CIA, titled “The Facts About Chile,” the widow of Chilean President Salvador Allende—Hortensia Bussi de Allende—stated the following:

“The chapter concerning CIA and North American imperialist intervention in Chile is by no means closed…Each day we know of new facts that…have been hidden from the North American people…It is necessary that these so-called `secrets' be known…I ask the people of the United States to insist that the…responsibility of the U.S. government for the fascist massacre that exists in Chile be made known and denounced…

“In September [1973], ships from the U.S. Navy arrive in Chilean waters to participate with the Chilean Navy in the joint maneuvers called `Operation Unitas.’

“At the same time, 32 U.S. observation and battle planes land in Mendoza, Argentina; 15 of the planes leave 48 hours after the coup. Simultaneously 150 North Americans described as `specialists in air acrobatics’ arrive in Chile.

“On Sept. 9 [1973], President Nixon is informed about plans for the military coup in Chile.

“On Sept. 11 [1973], the military coup takes place. The Popular Unity government is overthrown; President Allende is murdered and a fascist dictatorship is installed.

“The fact that the U.S. warships from the Unitas maneuvers were standing by ready to help in case they were needed in carrying out the coup is disclosed.

“Another fact is revealed…: namely, that on the day of the coup a WB-575 plane was operated in Chile by Majors V. Ouenes and T. Schull from the U.S. Air Force. The plane was a flying electronic control station, servicing to coordinate the communications of the putschists.

The German magazine, Neue Berliner Illustrierte of Dec. 25, 1973, states that it has a confidential U.S. Army document, taken from a vault at Fort Gulick, Panama, outlining a plan to destroy the Popular Unity government. The U.S. plan revealed in Germany has characteristics very similar to the events of Sept. 11…”

In another essay that appeared in Uncloaking The CIA, titled “The Case of Chile,” Adam Schuesch and Patricia Garrett also described the U.S. role in the Sept. 11, 1973 Chilean military coup:

“Evidence published in Argentina suggests that the planes actually used in the precision bombing attack on the presidential palace were U.S. planes using `smart bombs’ and piloted by foreigners. At the same time units of the U.S. Navy were stationed off the major port, Valparaiso, ostensibly to participate in joint naval exercises. In fact, U.S. Navy personnel played a key role in communications coordination during the coup.

“…What is important about the U.S. intervention in Chile is the preparatory phase. Without active U.S. financing, training and supplies, the coup could clearly never have been successful…The U.S. involvement in the overthrow of the democratic government of Chile is a serious warning for United States citizens. The investigations of the CIA have shown that the people behind the Chilean coup have few scruples about similar activities in the U.S. Chile teaches us that it could happen here.”

(Downtown 9/1/93)

Chilean Military's Pentagon & CIA Connection Prior To 1973 Coup

As the Chile: CIA Big Business book noted, “It was General Augusto Pinochet, a military attache’ of the Chilean Embassy in Washington for 10 years that proved to be…the…head of the Junta” after the democratically-elected government of Chilean President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a Chilean military coup on September 11, 1973: and “Pinochet, incidentally, had his training at the U.S. bases in the Panama Canal Zone three times, in 1965, 1968 and even in 1972…” The same book also recalled:

“As early as July 1969, the CIA Santiago Station received a Headquarters go-ahead for a secret program to infiltrate CIA agents into the Armed Forces of Chile. The program lasted for four years, and its principal objective was to get CIA agents into all three branches of the Chilean military, more particularly the command-level officers, general staff officers, retired officers and enlisted men.

“Yet President Nixon’s order of Sept. 15, 1970, for a military coup to be organized caught the Santiago Station unprepared. CIA agents among the Chilean military had not enough influence as yet to push them into staging a coup…”

(Downtown 9/1/93)

NYU's Historic Richard Nixon Connection

In his introduction to the 1974 book Big Brother and The Holding Company: The World Behind Watergate, Noam Chomsky asserted that “Richard Nixon is one of the major criminals of the 20th century, and the same is true of those who have designed and implemented the foreign policy of his administration;” and “it is plain that Nixon’s pleasant crew succeeded in stealing the 1972 election.”

In an essay, titled ‘Nixon and the Miami Connection”, which appeared in the same book, 1990s New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth also wrote that “from his smear campaigns in the late 1940s, to the secret slush fund that led to the Checkers speech in 1952, to the Hughes loan in 1960, to the $400,000 ITT scandal in 1972 to the Watergate break-in and the secret Republican war chest, Nixon’s ascendancy to power has been surrounded by the stigma of suspicion.”

Another essay in Big Brother and The Holding Company also described the now-deceased Nixon’s 1960s and 1970s connection to New York University’s board of trustees:

“Until 1963, Mudge, Stern, Baldwin & Todd was a stodgy old Wall Street law firm…One of its oldest clients was Warner-Lambert Pharmaceuticals, whose chairman, vitamin king Elmer Bobst, had a personal stake in finding a job for his old friend Richard Nixon…

“…Bobst…convinced the partners of Mudge, Stern, Baldwin & Todd that Nixon’s presence would bring in new clients…

“Nixon joined the firm in mid-1963 and on January 1, 1964, the name became Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander…

“Salmon Brothers has a pragmatic and self-serving interest in New York University. They made a `gift’ of $3 million to an education and research center relating to financial organizations…Other Mudge, Rose clients have an interest in New York University. Former chairman of Irving Trust, George A. Murphy is a trustee. Elmer Bobst, of Warner-Lambert, is not only a trustee, but also gave $11 million to New York University’s newly dedicated Elmer H. Bobst Library…”

(Downtown 5/11/94)