How America’s fear of communism paved the way for a Chilean dictator.

Henry Kissinger and Augusto Pinochet shaking hands in 1976. Photo from Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile via Wikimedia Commons.

During the Cold War, the United States feared the rise of Communism across the world. But in Latin America, the United States took action. 

In 1970, Salvador Allende won the Chilean presidency with just a third of the vote.  He was a  socialist who started shaking things up across the country.

Within just a couple years, a military coup removed him from power, and Augusto Pinochet, the American-backed strongman, replaced him.  The ensuing Pinochet regime left thousands of Chileans dead and missing.  The government actively persecuted alleged dissonants both domestically and abroad, leading to the eventual assassinations of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, who were killed with a car bomb in Washington D.C.  

The story of the United States’ involvement in South American upheaval is still unfolding. But declassified documents show that then National Security Advisor Henry Kissenger was fairly un-bothered about the upheaval of South American democracy, so long as the Communists lost influence.

Historian Alan McPherson says that the United States’ relation with democracies in Latin America is incredibly complex and nuanced. In this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Jessica Chiriboga asks why stories about foreign intervention are never simple. 

Book: Intimate Ties, Bitter Struggles: the United States and Latin America since 1945

Guest: Alan McPherson

Producer: Jessica Chiriboga

Music: Silas Bohen and Coleman Hamilton

Editors: Bethany Denton and Jeff Emtman