LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830019-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: March 1, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830019-8
STAT
ARTICLE APPEARED
.ON PAGE)4 THE ATLANTIC
MARCH 1983
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
KISSINGER, NIXON, AND CHILE
have read with much interest Sey-
Imour M. Hersh's article "The Price of
.Power. Kissinger, Nixon, and Chile," in
your December issue, and wonder if I
might recall the following episode in the
drama of Salvador Allende:
At the beginning of December, 1972,
President Allende came to New York to
appeal, at the United Nations, against
what Mr. Hersh, citing the CIA's own
words, describes as the United States'
"firm and continuing policy that Allende
be overthrown." Following Allende's ad-
dress on this theme to the UN General
Assembly, a lengthy editorial entitled
"What Allende Left Out" appeared in
The New York Times of December 9,
1972, censuring Allende's charges as ir-
responsible and willfully ill-founded. In
that editorial, the loss of monetary cred-
it to Chile from American and interna-
tional agencies was attributed merely to
the premise "that the Allende govern-
ment is not a good lending risk"; Allende.
was rebuked for "tarnishing all Ameri-
can firms for the bad deportment of a
few," and for "painting official Washing-
ton's role in colors too conspiratorial";
and Allende's claim to a popular follow-
ing in his own country was scathingly
disparaged. Criticizing Washington for
nothing more than having "acted clumsi-
ly" toward Chile, the editorial went on to
edge or political ideologies had already
become convinced, from pressure of
facts, that it was indeed official United
States policy "that Allende be over-
thrown." A decade has passed; and per-
haps Mr. Hersh-who was then at The
New York Times-can now tell us the
source and context of this misguided and
influential editorial.
SH LEY HAZZARD
New York, N.Y.
T hank you for bringing us Seymour
Hersh's account of Nixon and Kis-
singer's role in plotting to overthrow
Salvador Allende. Hersh, though, fails
to mention that private U.S. banks had a
hand in the economic warfare waged
against Chile in the aftermath of Al-
lende's election.
Although they had formerly granted
Chile about $220 million a year in vital
short-term loans, after Allende's elec-
tion, U.S. banks limited their commit-
ments to about $35 million in 1971 and
$32 million in 1972.
But within eighteen months of the
bloody coup that overthrew .Allende,
U.S. banks flocked to Chile, offering
much-needed loans. By 1978, more than
90 percent of the debt of the right-wing
military regime in Chile was being cov-
ered by loans from U.S. banks, led by
Citibank, Bankers Trust, Morgan Guar-
anty, Wells Fargo, Chemical Bank, and
First Chicago. U.S. banks, involved in
bringing about economic conditions that
made Chile ripe for a military coup, have
continued to finance a totalitarian re-
gime-one that, most likely, could not
continue existing without the support of
the U.S. banking community.
DAVID CORN
New York, N.Y.
singer's memoirs, The White House
Years, makes plain his negative view of
the Allende regime. Hersh's article
damns Kissinger's morality and, implic-
itly, his ideology, but fails to state plainly
and fairly that Kissinger a) had no role in
the efforts to prevent Allende's assump-
tion of the Chilean presidency, and b)
even opposed the schemes.proposed by
CIA officials. Rationalization aside, pre-
sumptions of motivations aside, the
Hersh piece does not change our knowl-
edge of this historical record one whit. i
IRVING L. Hoxowrrz
New Brunswick, N.J.
make the following assertion:
In recounting I.T.T.'s misadven-
tures, Dr. Allende failed to tell his
United Nations audience that the
Nixon administration wisely ig-
nored I.T.T.'s appeal for CIA and
other government help for a 1971
scheme designed to make sure that
the Allende government "does not
get through the crucial next six
months." Similarly vital omissions
are evident in Dr. Allende's account
of Chile's difficulties with the Ken-
necott and Anaconda Copper com-
panies.
T he article by Seymour M. Hersh
promises an expose it simply fails to
deliver. To be sure, Hersh demonstrates
that Kissinger, at least, opposed any ef-
fort to overthrow the election of Salva-
Allende's accusations on that occasion dor Allende in 1970, and did so precisely
were in fact mild in comparison with the because he properly understood the lim-
evidence brought forward in Mr. Hersh's its of power. Hersh is disturbed by Kis-
article. singer's lack of moral enthusiasm for Al-
When the Times editorial appeared, lende, rather than by any active political
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830019-8