Quote:
Originally posted by khazadman:
And we'll never know how many people will have died had communism managed to gain control of Chile. It most likely would have been far worse than Pinochet's dictatorship. Not that I'm saying Pinochet was good. God knows he wasn't.
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Well, we'll never know if the the democratically elected socialist government would have eventually engaged in mass slaughter like the one that replaced it.
Hitler's government was elected in the first instance afterall.
However, there was nothing to indicate that this would be the case with Allende's government - and it's clear from the declassified US government documents that this was not a worry to the CIA or US government; they simply didn't want a left wing government on their doorstep - at any cost. Indeed they even gave Pinochet logistical and financial help for the detention, torture and killing of his political opponents.
However, before we judge sordid and reprehensible part that the US played in the coup, one should not forget that this was the height of the Cold War and a mere ten years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Paranoia and fear ruled the day in Washington and it would be wrong to forget that.
On the other hand, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been a formal apology to the government and people of Chile and there really is no excuse for this. So far only Powell has made an unofficial remark about the US being "not proud" of its involvement.
The lack of an official US government apology is really unforgivable.