THE SELL-OUT OF CHILE AND THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030065-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2011
• Sequence Number: 65
• Publication Date: March 1, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

1 !I
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For two years the former U.S. ambassador to Chile has tried to tell the
American public the true story of our shameful interference in the affairs of
that country. In this exclusive article, Korry presents the facts that five
American presidents, a Senate committee, and the press have concealed.
or two years I have devoted my life to the
lonely anii futile struggle of trying to tell the
American people what Jimmy Carter, like
Richard Nixon before him, insists must remain
Top Set'
My name has been on extreme-left assassina-
tion my life has been threatened by the
extreme right, my reputation has been shredded
by ITT and CIA agents, and my bank account has
been depleted because I believe that the elec-
torate should hear the facts of a story that has
dominated the media for the past four years-
what the United States did in, and to, Chile.
carte- told a press conference last November
that the story still can't be told, because he has to
safeguard "national security" secrets. I say that
the cover-up is motivated only by the desire to
protect domr,,tic political interests, that the tale
of the United States in Chile would reveal how our
poi ical system has been converted into an in-
siders' monopoly for the accumulation of power,
wt.allh, and status. That's why Carter himself has
had to lie to the public about this case. That's why
he has heeded Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Kis-
singer, Teddy Kennedy, and scores of others
who have privately pleaded that he let sleeping
princip;es lie. After all, the essential "national so-
crcts" regarding Chile are already on public rec-
ord. The Senate investigation of the CIA estab-
lished in 1975 exactly what was done to prevent
Chile's President-elect Salvador Allende from
taking office in 1970 and what was subsequently
done to undermine his government.
The most recent chapter in this tale unfolded,
appropriately enough, last October 31, Hallow-
een. Our most notorious spy master, former CIA
Director Richard Helms, was secretly whisked by
70 PENTHOUSE
Carter's men at the Justice Department to a led.
oral court to plead "no contest" to thv mis-
demeanor of "having failad to answer [Senate
Committee) questions fully, completely, and ac-
curately, as required by law." Later that day At-
torney Genaral Griffin Bell told the press that the
government had arranged in secret a s!rrnge
plea barnain with Helms-the gov' ; nment ? ? ?uld
drop its charge of perjury (which is a felony) in
return for Helms's in effect pleading guilty to a
lesser of tense. Helms receiv;'d only a suspended
sentence, and th-a government was spared hav-
ing to put him on the stand to testify about all he
know.
The details of how the "open" Carter adminis-
tration had worked out this trick-or-treat surprise
for the public are fascinating. Bell had met pri-
vately with Edward Benn3tt Williams, Helms's a!-
torney (who had previously worked for such
clients as jimmy f !offa, Robert Vasco, John Con-
nally, Teddy Kennedy, and the WashingtunPost).
Despite Bell's ple, ge, on taking office, that h3
would keep an open record of such meetings, at
least two sessions with Williams were concealed.
Second, Bell disclosed that despite Carter's as-
sertion (at a September 29 press conference) of
total ignorance of the Helms deal, the president
had personally discussed the case months ear-
lier at an Oval Office session attended by Vice-
President Mondale and Bell. Third, by stressing
how good a case of perjury the government had
constructed and by stating that the government
had yielded only because of Helms's threat to
renounce his oath of secrecy and to tell whatever
he chose from his enormous reservoir of secrets,
Be]; was introducing a novel principle in Ameri-
can law: that blackmail, the sleaziest of crimes,
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super. odes justice.
M01111)6 to make sure not only that *. is
would escape unpunished, but also, and
more important, that he would not be
forced to take any witness stand. Their plan
was to inv"ke "national security" to block a
trial. The ,l: 'slice Department sal on a fed-
eral grand jury recommendation for
Holins's indictment until public interest in
the c, :e receded. The delay gave Helms's
mn??: friends in the Senate, the govern-
m, the banks, the multinationals, and
c'. 9r'? rift d ;J - cve- n ie` in David :rnd
Nl..'c,on Roci;efeiler, to Henry Kissinger,
Cyrus Vance, and Aver :l! Harriman, to
newsmen such as Eric Sevareid--oppor-
tunity to lobby for him. Bell was also able to
separate Helms from some of the more
serious charges made against him-that
he had conspired with ITT to commit per-
jury, which possibly enabled that company
to defraud the government of $92.5 million.
If the former CIA director had to answer
these charges, the public might have
learned the whole story of Chile-including
the names of some very high officials who
told Helms to lie to the Senate. '
I had been collecting evidence of these
and other posstle crimes for two years
when, at the end of March 1976, I alerted
the Justice Department. I saw myself as a
victim of possible CIA and ITT perjuries
and conspiracies. I intended not only to
clear my name but also to show how our
political system actually works and to illus-
trate what Ken Kesey, author of One Flew
over the Cuckoo's Nest, meant when he
said that the fall of Richard Nixon was only
a "ritualistic sacrifice."
I knew that the power elite would try to
silence me. Ambassador Ralph Dungan,
one of Kennedy's top White House aides
and now a high Carter administration offi-
cial, warned me in 1975: "Don't try to put
that stuff on record. Don't try to take on
these guys. They can murder you."
My conversion from friend and employee
to enemy of the establishment began early
in 1975. A brief, not unfriendly invitation
from Sen. Frank Church started the pro-
cess. As chairman of the newly formed
Senate Selec.: Committee to investigate the
CIA arid the FBI, the Idaho liberal ex-
pressed the hope that I would testify.
Whenever and however he wished. I re-
plied.
The invitation was no surprise. The Sen-
ate had been pushed into action by the
revelations of CIA actions in Chile. I was
ambassador to that country for four years,
from October 1967 to October 1971. I had
the legal responsibility for CIA actions in
Chile in 1970, the year Salvador Allende
was elected to lead a "popular unity" gov-
ernment. I had met with Nixon in the Oval
Office, conferred with Henry Kissinger,
Nixon's national-security adviser, and at-
tended a session of the then supersecret.
"Forty Committee" in the While House only
ten days before the grotesque murder of
Gen. Rene Schneider, the Chilean com-
72 PENTHOUSE
aJ ~y 111541 II VIIII VIU4f. jJUI OW
throughout Allende's first year in of fit
Obviously, I had something to contribute to
the public's demand to know the facts
about the American intervention in Chile.
In June 1975. Gregory Treverton, a
young Select Committee representative,
telephoned me, on Senator Church's be-
half, and asked for an informal interview
prior to my Senate appearance. I told him
that of course he could have it. A few days
later the State Department rang. Would I
mind if ono of it:: Irr'rJ atic:nr'c:d t!1:;? into r-
view as a silent ufJ..c: v t? I had no objec-
tion, I answered. So on July 19 one J.J.
Hitchco: !', arrived with Treverton at my
house in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. (I later
learned that Hitchcock had just joined tho
State Department after years of service for
the CIA.)
To prepare for their questions, I traveled
to Washington, to Chicago, and even to
Paris to cross-examine former colleagues
6
After I learned what
happened in Chile, I wrote
Kissinger: "You and
the president ... deliberately
chose to permit me
and my family to run the
risk of murder...
J
in government. I interviewed my successor
as ambassador, my deputy in the em-
bassy, the F-)reign Service Officers in the
political aifairs section, the two Latin Amar-
ican experts on Henry Kissinger's National
Security Council, the Chile specialists in
the Intelligence and Research Bureau of
the State Department, and my former de-
tense attache in Chile. The new director of
the CIA, William Colby, finally agreed to
see me, too. And after an exasperating wait
of many weeks, I gained entry to State's
archives so that I could reread all the offi-
cial cable traffic to and from my embassy in
Santiago.
I embarked on this search because I did
not want to rely on memory. Journalism had
taught me that "reality," like "respectabil-
ity," is often like a stage set for a Jean
Genet play-a perverse maze of mirrors in
which servants are transformed into mas-
ters, dwarfs into giants, and villains into
heroes.
A summary of what I knew of America's
relationship with Chile illustrates that point.
It shows why Watergate was not an aberra-
tion but an inevitability. It traces the straight
lines from the romanticism of the Kennedy
years to the sordidness of Nixon's--why, in
i~ 1 ,UOlUti111 ~~Vnl lc:uy 11 tJ'.Jl rf{1;
Chile and its Christian Democa,:1
Eduardo to be the progressive, d
ocratic m(?~ leis for the entire Third V'urr(!, !,
be Camelot's alternative to Cuba. Tlrrc,u.-.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy. wl:o a,.
saw the "Special Group" in the
House that decided all CIA program,,.
earlier version of the "Forty Comnr:dt^e
the United States began working in 1i!i
for Frei's election.
(2) The Kennedys utilized ew,r?,
nw-:'ns -ir!ng.i foul ncnnsta -. .?
weii as legilirnate--.to defeat Frei's Maw,!
opponent, Salvador Allende. Through
CIA and other federal agencies, tens rr
millions of public dollars were spent en
Frei's election. So overcome were the Kerr.
nedys by their fear of Castro that they e'c?r.
responded with public money to appei,l_.
from foreign Jesuits for federal help t;;
combat not only "Marxism" but also "tar-
cism" (a theological term for the wide.
spread Free Masonry movement in Chile)
and "Protestantism" (a reference to the
American Pentecostal missionaries their
swarming across South America).
(3) When President Kennedy and Daviu
Rockefeller both attended a Harvard Uni-
versity Board of Overseers meeting in
1963. Kennedy persuaded him to organize
American big business for the anti-Castro
crusade. The banker recruited thirty-seven
leading multinationals, such as ITT, to form
the Business Group for Latin America.
Then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, 11-ti
supposed guardian of our laws, systemati-
cally integrated members of the samTrr'
Business Group into CIA programs. As a!i
inducement to Rockefeller. JFK pledged
that he would satisfy his request for no-toss
guarantees on any future investments in
Latin America. The United States would
sign insurance contracts against any ex-
propriation by foreign governments of the
corpora ons' properties. (By the time I h -,.,l
arrived in Chile, the taxpayer had been plrt
on this insurance limb for $600 million in
ultrarisky Chile alone, mostly to ITT and th;;
copper giant, Anaconda. This sure wa?=
then one-fourth of the worldwide total of
such insurance issued by the United
States.)
(4) In early 1964 President Johnson as-
sured David Rockefeller's group that he
would abide by Kennedy's commitments.
Not only did he send all available CIA and
State hands to Santiago in a frantic last-
minute outpouring of cash to defeat Al-
lende, but also he retained Ralph Dungan,
Kennedy's architect of our grand design
for Chile, to oversee this enormous effort.
When Frei won by a landslide, Dungan's
immediate reward was to be named am-
bassador to Chile. Frorn there he pried
from LBJ more U.S. aid per capita than any
other country at peace received.
(5) Frei's Christian Democratic govern-
ment achieved more social and economic
progress-in education, land reform, tax
collection, income redistribution-than
had any previous administration. By any
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lair standard,- it was humanistic, d - lot a job, I was rehired at Slate's sugg(,g.> n was described in Washington
ci a!ic, proyres:>ive. lion. Frei had written Nixon to seek a new Santiago as "a member of [tic Frei cubit,. ?1
(C) The Johnson administration sent me copper deal, starting with a dernand for He had sought to have the CIA fin Kennedy, to Chile wilh specific instructions to keep majority ownership of the Anaconda prop- Christian Democrats into a Kenndy-
ancr
A!lenco out of power. The president himself erties. State preferred me to handle this hot machne. He arranged with the CIA t;,
said so, and in 1967 and 1968 Vice Presi- potato.)
dent Humphrey wrote me to emphasize the (8) In 1970 the Foreign Service officers Fa rei ministers ) onn the CIA's payroll, he ccr.1
importance of barring the Communists in Chile concluded that an Allende victory suited often with the key Jesuits; Iii, 1;;,..,.
from power. In just four years the Demo- would signify " Fidelisrno without Fidel." Al- sured Anaconda to fire all non-Ci ;r;s;
cratic Congress approved almost $2 billion lende's Socialist party program had prom- Democrats. The United States had
in aid and loans for Chile. ~^ ised a fierce class war. The party's leader- the responsibility for every facet of Ci?.....:.
(7) Nixon f.reri rrr? tuirtfty in early 1.?n9 ship h + r.?"c'Ju,ted for c!PC lh:" u.
fir c! ,,Tv,,,,,,, o! Frei. Suori after ta!:ny ,.c:me to r J Allende ho:n ils Central Cons- nance,Jproduction, Savings and I~,, ,.,
offi( e, he had settled scores with the Ken- mittee or any policymaking post. It wanted police, and military.
nedys by secretly crossing Frei's name a truly revolutionary president. 11 had sub- I told the Johnson and Frei governmr. r .
from the list of heads of state to be invited to mitted reluctantly to Communist insistence that I could not and should not play vicerc,.,
Washington. Then Nixon decided to give that the popular Allende be its 1970 candi- I told them that the incestuous re!ations;!,i.
no further aid to Chile. These decisions date; in return, it won a pledge to have veto was hurting us both. I urged that we
were, in part, Nixon's response to vigorous power over every Allende government pol- gage quietly and prudently, that we ir: ;?? .
anti-Frei lobbying in Washington by Chi- icy.
duce slow-prolira policy lhroughocr, L;;l:?
lean fat cats, by their multinational allies, CIA penetration of the Communists and America, that we eliminate our military rn,-.
and by the CIA. Helms's agency had is- of the far more violent Socialists confirmed sions in Latin American countries, am i ;i
sued a National Intelligence Estimate of the fact that an Allende government in- we urgethe multinationals to take conslrur
Chile immediately after Nixon's election. It tended to combine the tremendous powers live initiatives in order to avoid confru~it
was so unfairly critical of Frei's of the presidency and the Chilean prefer- Lions over the inevitable nationalizatio;is
performance-and of progressive, socio- ence for government-run enterprise in copper and other holdings.
economic policies in general---that I had order to gut the two fundamental freedoms So, before Nixon's election, the otfic?
exploded in a series of cabled protests. of the press and of association. As an ex- presence of the United States in Chil;r N:
When ; said ttlat these anti-Frei actions newsman, I recrarded as immo.at any silent slashed, every CIA program was
were foolishly designed to put the Right observation of such a process. to the bone, our military contingent W:!.-
back into power and would result only in (9) I had been appalled by what I found reduced to a small fraction of what it w"'
strengthening the Leninists and in weaken- in Chile in 1967. The United States had further "guarantees" of U.S. inve tm -;
ing the strongest single bulwark of democ- bound itself publicly to the Frei govern- were stopped, and the Jesuits :r.+re
racy, I promptly received a pink slip. ment. Ii had become enmeshed in the
lil
h
'
po
s
unned. After Nixon
s election, on my o,'.
(When I flew to the United States to hunt ical affairs of Chile-shockingly so. Dun- authority and despite CIA protests, I c!u:
the weekly newspaper.
(10) The CIA convinced me in 1970
my policies would boomerang into Ire!iir
Allende. Democracy itself was in trout;-'
Chile. The Socialists had joiner! th;
rightists in
plotting . with Chilean r Jcc.nipr.,.;5-
.
overthrow Frei. The Communists
using large subsidies from abroad to r.,
and sell senators and deputies,
blackmail key fir. ures, and to plant i ac, , ,:..
in all other parties. Fascists were iecs:vr?:.
cash and other help from z ;r
p drat.. to d?;.