Institute for Local Self-Reliance BY DAVID MORRIS
September 11th, 2003 marks the second anniversary of the aerial attack by terrorists that killed 2,700 people and profoundly changed American society.
September 11th also marks the anniversary, in this case the thirtieth, of the aerial attack by terrorists that led to the murder of more than 3,000 people and profoundly changed Chilean society.
American commentators probably won’t mention the 1973 attacks on Chile and their aftermath. They should. Because in those attacks it was the U.S. government that played the role of Al Queda – recruiting, training, arming, financing and coordinating the terrorists.
Our involvement in this unsavory affair is now widely recognized. As Secretary of State Colin Powell himself recently acknowledged, “It is not a part of our country’s history that we are proud of.”
Powell’s comment implies a feeling of contrition. I doubt his colleagues in this Administration share his shame. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld worked in the Nixon cabinet during the 1973 attacks on Chile’s White House. And in a most telling demonstration of continuity, President Bush appointed Henry Kissinger, the central player in the overthrow of the Chilean government, to chair the Committee investigating the attacSeptember 11th also marks the anniversary, in this case the thirtieth, of the aerial attack by terrorists that led to the murder of more than 3,000 people and profoundly changed Chilean society.ks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. (Kissinger withdrew in the face of ferocious worldwide criticism.)
On September 4, 1970, Salvador Allende, founder of the Socialist Party and four time presidential candidate, was elected President of Chile. Allende was duly and uncontrovertibly elected in a country with a long and rich democratic tradition, a country whose voting turnout is double that of the United States. However, this was irrelevant to President Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people,” Kissinger declared…
