Published on the 30th anniversary of General Pinochet's military coup, declassified documents that reveal the startling facts behind US collusion with the notorious Chilean dictator. In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here....We want to help, not undermine you.—Henry Kissinger speaking confidentially to General Augusto Pinochet. The 1998 arrest of General Augusto Pinochet in Britain brought renewed attention to the dark days of his dictatorship and raised questions about America's role in bringing the General and his henchmen to power. As a result of the efforts of Peter Kornbluh and the National Security Archive, thousands of the government records that spell out US government support of Pinochet have recently been declassified. The Pinochet File makes public many of the key and formerly secret records of the atrocity and complicity that are at the heart of the international campaign to hold this Chilean general legally accountable for murder, torture, and terrorism. Peter Kornbluh's investigative narrative puts the documents in their historical context—exposing the efforts of Henry Kissinger, the White House and the CIA to conceal this history—and fills in the gaps of one of the most infamous chapters in the history of American foreign policy. For Chileans, September 11th marks a different tragedy—the anniversary of the 1973 coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. This timely book weaves together thirty years of declassified documents with a gripping narrative of America's involvement in the affair. At a National Security Council meeting in 1970, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird said of Allende, "We want to do everything we can to hurt him and bring him down," and a C.I.A. memo from the same year describes efforts of a key ally "to increase the level of terrorism in Santiago." This terrorism included the assassination of René Schneider, the constitutionalist commander-in-chief of Chile's armed forces, which was carried out with C.I.A.-provided funds and submachine guns. The evidence that Kornbluh has gathered is overwhelming. As Colin Powell recently remarked about the United States' role in the Pinochet coup, "It is not a part of American history that we are proud of." - The New Yorker
Introduction. pdf
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 110 - audiofiles
