The Other 9/11

Henry Kissinger urged President Richard Nixon to overthrow the democratically elected [Salvadore] Allende government in Chile because his " 'model' effect can be insidious," according to documents posted today by the National Security Archive. The coup against Allende occurred on this date [in 1973]. The posted records spotlight Kissinger's role as the principal policy architect of U.S. efforts to oust the Chilean leader, and assist in the consolidation of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.

[...]

When Nixon complained about the "liberal crap" in the media about Allende's overthrow, Kissinger advised him: "In the Eisenhower period, we would be heroes."

[...]

[E]ight days after Allende's election, Kissinger initiated discussion on the telephone with CIA director Richard Helm's about a preemptive coup in Chile.

[...]

Their conversation took place three days before President Nixon, in a 15-minute meeting that included Kissinger, ordered the CIA to "make the [Chilean] economy scream," and named Kissinger as the supervisor of the covert efforts to keep Allende from being inaugurated.

[...]

After U.S. covert operations, which led to the assassination of Chilean Commander in Chief of the Armed forces General Rene Schneider, failed to stop Allende's inauguration on November 4, 1970, Kissinger lobbied President Nixon to reject the State Department's recommendation that the U.S. seek a modus vivendi with Allende. [...] There was no way for the U.S. to deny Allende's legitimacy, Kissinger noted, and if he succeeded in peacefully reallocating resources in Chile in a socialist direction, other countries might follow suit.

[...]

The next day Nixon made it clear to the entire National Security Council that the policy would be to bring Allende down. "Our main concern," he stated, "is the prospect that he can consolidate himself and the picture projected to the world will be his success."

[...]

At the height of Pinochet's repression in 1975, Secretary Kissinger met with the Chilean foreign minister, Admiral Patricio Carvajal. Instead of taking the opportunity to press the military regime to improve its human rights record, Kissinger opened the meeting by disparaging his own staff for putting the issue of human rights on the agenda. "I read the briefing paper for this meeting and it was nothing but Human Rights," he told Carvajal.

[...]

[When Kissinger met] General Augusto Pinochet in Santiago in June 1976, his top deputy for Latin America, William D. Rogers, advised him make human rights central to U.S.-Chilean relations and to press the dictator to "improve human rights practices." Instead, a declassified transcript of their conversation reveals, Kissinger told Pinochet that his regime was a victim of leftist propaganda on human rights.

  National Security Archive

Better a criminal dictator than a socialist, eh?

The essence of Henry Kissinger.  The fact that he's not rotting in jail is a testament to the true character of America.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.