INTERVIEW WITH SEYMOUR HERSH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500150028-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2005
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: November 23, 1982
• Content Type: TRANS

RADIO N REPORTS, IN
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
PROGRAM
The Today Show
STATION
WRC-TV
NBC Network
DATE
November 23, 1982
7:00 A.M.
CITY
Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT
Interview with Seymour Hersh
TOM BROKAW: There are new charges out this morning that
Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were responsible for the death
of President Salvador Allende of Chile. Judy Woodruff is in our
Washington studio with the reporter who broke that story.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We are with Seymour Hersh, who is
working on a book right now on Henry Kissinger.
You have an article coming out in The Atlantic magazine
this month. It's being released today. And what exactly are you
accusing Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon of doing?
SEYMOUR HERSH: Well, let me make clear I'm not accusing
them of the death of Allende in '73. We don't know what happened
in '73, if he was overthrown and killed or committed assassin-
ation [sic] during the overthrow. What I'm saying is we've been
looking at the wrong issue. The real story isn't what happened
in '73. It seems to me one of the stories we could look at is
what happened in 1970 when Allende was elected.
WOODRUFF: And what are you saying their precise
involvement was? %
HERSH: I'm saying that I started out writing a book
about Kissinger, Nixon, and their foreign policy, and I decided
to take a good hard look at how policy is made, what really
happens. And I've discovered that in Chile in 1970 the CIA
thought, Richard Helms and others...
WOODRUFF: Excuse me. Now we're seeing pictures of
Allende's inauguration, and this was in November of 1970.
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ARTICLM APPEARED THE WASHINGTON POST
ON P11. . --, 23 NOVFWBFP 1982
New Charges lT Reported
In CIA Plot on Allende
By John Dinges
epectal to The Washington Post
CIA activities to prevent Salvador
Allende from assuming the Chilean
presidency in 1970 were more exten-
sive than previously acknowledged in-
official accounts, author Seymour M.
Hersh asserts in the December issue
-of Atlantic.Monthly. -
Hersh charges, based on the ac-
count of an unnamed "close associ-
ate" of then-CIA director Richard
Helms, that President Nixon "spe-
cifically ordered the CIA to get rid of
Allende"-an order that Hersh 'con'-
tends amounted to a go-ahead to as-
sassinate Allende if necessary.
"Helms -told the associate there -
was no doubt in his mind at the time
accounts from a half-dozen alleged
participants in the Chile operations,
including two deep-cover CIA oper-
atives- whose identities were previ-
ously unknown.
The agents, called "false-flaggers"
by the "CIA because of their use of'
false Latin American passports as
cover, were veteran agents assigned
to give CIA money and instructions
to "extreme right-wing terrorists," in-
cluding cashiered Gen. Roberto
Viaux and other Chilean 'military
leaders plotting against Allende,
Hersh writes.
Viaux led a kidnaping attempt
Oct. 22, 1970, that resulted in the
murder of the head of the Chilean
armed forces, Gen. Rene
what Nixon meant," Hersh writes.-' -Schneider-an: 'operation thg `CIA
The "close associate, r# ti t liar disavowed
writes, was relating He s', tk ersh quotes ie tSa x i 11 l t~~y at-
account of a Sept. 15, 1970, Oval Of- tache in Chile at the time, Col. Paul
lice meeting of Nixon and then naC. Wimert Jr., as saying he gLred
tional security adviser Henry A: they [the false-flaggers] had ~.,been
Kissinger, who the source said later . sent to ; Santiago to;.arrange for Al-
"pressured [Helms] again on' the sub= lende's death:"'
ject,:-
." According to the article, an Me in
Helms testified in 1975 'hearings:-` the National Security Council; .Yeo-
before the Senate Intelligence Com= man Charles E: Radford, told'Hersh
mittee that Nixon's orders at that- that he saw option papers -that:dis-
meeting referred to Allende's over-, cussed ways to assassinate Allende.
throw and did not "in his mind" in- Hersh's article does not cite any ev-
elude assassination. idence that plans to kill Allende
Hersh's account, which is adapted were put into operation.
from his forthcoming biography of
Kissinger, does not contain the kind
' of smoking gun evidence that would
drastically alter the picture drawn in
the 1975 Senate hearings.-
Testimony then revealed that the
CIA financed an unsuccessful covert
propaganda campaign against Al-
lende's election, and later partici-
pated in various plots with Chilean
politicians and military leaders to
keep him from taking office after his
plurality victory in September, 1970.
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ARTICLE -T j
.ON PACE
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
23 NOVEMBER 1982
CIA reportedly got OK for Allende slaying
BOSTON (UPI) -Former President
Richard Nixon and his secretary of
state, Henry Kissinger, gave the CIA "a
blank check" to arrange the assassina-
tion of President Salvador Allende of
Chile in 1970, it was reported yesterday.
CIA Director Richard Helms was
approached by both men and Nixon
gave him a "blank check. to move
against Allende without informing any-
one," according to an article in the
December issue of Atlantic Monthly
.magazine. .
The Chilean president was killed in
a coup three years later but there was
no known evidence of CIA involvement.
The Atlantic Monthly article is an
excerpt of Seymour M. Hersh's book,
"The Price of Power: Kissinger in Nix-
on's White House"
Helms told the Senate Intelligence
Committee in 1975 he did not consider
assassination to have been included in
Nixon's authorization to move against
the Chilean president but the former
CIA director reportedly told a different
story to a "close associate" reached by
Hersh.
"In a later conversation ... Helms
provided a much more credible.
description of what took place on Sept.
15: Nixon had specifically ordered the
CIA to get rid of Allende;" Hersh wrote.
"Helms told the associate that there
was no doubt in his mind at the time
what Nixon meant."
Helms was pressured again on the
subject at least one time by Kissinger,
the article said.
The Intelligence Committee
reported Nixon authorized the CIA. to
stage a military coup if possible 'to
prevent Allende's election. in -October _ the Chilean military. known to be eager
evidence of American-backed
sination plotting.
Hersh said he also interviewed CIA
agents who took part in an intensive
anti-Allende campaign in late 1.970 and
obtained highly classified CIA files not
turned over to the Senate Intelligence
Committee.
He reported Yeoman Charles E. Rad-
ford, who handled documents in a
National Security Council office, was
shocked to discover in 1970 a White
.House paper proposing different ways
to kill Allende.
The article said Helms ordered four.
veteran CIA agents into Chile between
Sept. 1S and Oct. 24, 1970, the day the
Chilean Congress confirmed Allende's
election.
The agents,ao known as "false-.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
23 NOVEMBER 1982
New Charges Are Raised on Plots
By the C.I.A. ? to Topple Allende
By LESLIE H. GELB
Spxia toTW Nero YCek T1ma
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 -- American
intelligence officers maintain that ef-
forts to overthrow President Salvador
Allende Gossens of Chile continued long
after Secretary of State Henry A. Kis-
singer testified they had stopped, ac-
cording to an article in The Atlantic
Monthly.
In the current issue of The Atlantic,
Seymour M. Hersh names and quotes
Central intelligence Agency officials
who were involved in the coup plotting
as having said they had reason to be-
lieve they were simply carrying out the
orders of President Nixon and Mr. Kis-
singer. 1 ese activities began in 1970
with the prospect of Mr. Allende's elect
tion and ended in .1973, when Mr. Al-
lende died in a militarycoup.
Before the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence Activities, Mr. Kissin-
ger stated in sworn testimony in 1975
? that covert plans to topple the Allende
regime were terminated on Oct. 15,
1970, and that he heard nothing further
about any such American actions. He
was supported in this by Alexander M.
Haig Jr., who was Mr. Kissinger's
deputy, and by Mr. Nixon. They stated,
in effect, that whatever happened after
that date, the Central intelligence
Agency did on its own.
Mr. Hersh names and quotes C.I.A.
agents and cites classified documents
showing extensive . contacts between
American covert operators and Chilean
coup plotters, including the passing of
money to those Chileans subsequently
convicted of assassinating Gen. Rene.
Schneider, the Commander in Chief of
the Chilean Army, who stood in the way `
of efforts to overthrow Mr. Allende.. .
Mr. Hersh's account alsq cites intelli-
gence officials and others. who would
not be identified as saying- that the
C.I.A. was pressed by the White House
in the fall of 1970 to arrange for the as-
sassination of Mr. Allende. To support
this charge, Mr. Hersh describes what
be says was a conversation between
Richard Helms, Director of Central In-
telligence at the time of the coup plot-
ting, and "a close associate" of Mr.
Helms. The associate said that Mr.
Helms had told him that the White .
House had ordered him to get rid of Mr.
Allende and that there was no doubt-in
his mind what the White House meant
A spokesman for Mr. Kissinger,
asked about the Hersh article today,
said, "He has nothing to add to what be
has previously written on the subject."
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