Posted on 08/29/2023 7:12:43 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
The U.S. State Department released portions of two formerly classified Nixon-era intelligence reports that offer insight into the information former President Nixon received amid Chile’s 1973 coup.
The two documents from September of 1973 include portions of the Central Intelligence Agency’s daily briefs with Nixon on the events occurring in Chile. The documents suggest Nixon may have had intel on the extent of a possible coup.
The documents come shortly ahead of the 50th anniversary of the coup against President Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973.
The document from Sept. 8, 1973 indicates Nixon was informed on a number of reports about the “possibility of an early military coup attempt,” involving Chile’s Navy, Air Force and Army, though the document noted there was not yet such evidence of a coordinated coup plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
It has been generally understood that the CIA orchestrated the coup. Allende was a communist. Just part of the Cold War. One would certainly hope the president would be kept advised as to what was happening. Not sure how this is especially newsworthy.
Left still has butthurt about losing Allende.
Pobrecitos.
Not really sure that's the case. My understanding is that the Chilean coup plotters asked their US contacts if the US would oppose a coup, to which they replied, "No."
I doubt if Nixon knew much of anything, other than after-action reporting.
Footnote: the assassination attempt against French President De Gaulle led to a in-depth situation where CIA figures were figured as part of that deal. De Gaulle calls Kennedy in the summer of 1963....asking what the hell was going on. Kennedy knew nothing.
Knowing about it and orchestrating it are 2 different things.
Gee, that sounds kinda familiar, like Biden being asked about the possibility of Putin invading Ukraine…
“Kennedy knew nothing.”
And in the recent Trump-Tucker interview, Tucker asked Trump flat out if he thought he was made aware of everything the CIA was doing and Trump said no.
Which is unacceptable, since the CIA has no authority but what derives from the President himself. It’s obviously not enough even if the President appoints a CIA director who is loyal, because then the CIA will just not tell the director everything they are doing either. Time to tear it out by the roots and start over.
Pinochet did nothing wrong.
“It’s obviously not enough even if the President appoints a CIA director who is loyal, because then the CIA will just not tell the director everything they are doing either. Time to tear it out by the roots and start over.”
Accurate post—but I think you are missing the systemic problem...(rant follows)....
The Civil Service was created after the Garfield assassination by a disgruntled federal job seeker to cut down the practice of appointing political “hacks” to almost all federal jobs.
That made sense at the time—but it created a new problem that was not foreseen—a professional class of lifetime bureaucrats.
There is a big difference (a knowledge/expertise gap) between having a job for a few years and having it for decades.
The Civil Service (imho in every agency) created an “informal network” of subject matter experts who focused on their own interests rather than the vaguely defined “public interest”.
What are the interests of lifetime Civil Service employees?
They want to maximize their pay (and benefits) and their power.
They quickly figured out that the best way to do that was to make their agency “critical” and “important” in the public eye—and equally important to choose what to reveal and what to hide in dealing with the political appointees who were technically their bosses.
This applied to military branches, later intelligence agencies as well as civilian elements of government.
They used the “National Security” umbrella to hide and compartmentalize both legitimate secrets and their own shady practices—hide them from their bosses as well as Congress and the press.
Bottom line—the Civil Service “reform” has become a dysfunctional disaster at this point.
Reorganizations are not going to fix it.
Political appointees lack the power to fix it as well.
Systemic bureaucratic problems of this magnitude (imho) cannot be fixed until the “nation” collapses.
You are correct.... and I KNOW!
Chile 1970 was just like Spain 1936. The left won a close election, went way beyond their mandate, the far left started revolutionary violence that the government couldn’t control, and the military eventually stepped in.
Sounds familiar.
Pinochet’s only mistake was that fewer than 1800 hard core leftists actually disappeared.
Sort of like America, 2020?
Regarding Allende, good riddance.
Of course.
[It has been generally understood that the CIA orchestrated the coup.]
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