Setting the Record Straight On Allende, Once More

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 25, 2003 | MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY

[Mister Magoo]

At 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 1973 Chilean President Salvador Allende made a radio announcement that the Chilean navy had "isolated" the port city of Valpara

[jimt]

Bump.

[Inkie]

I've been looking for a good summary of this for a long time. Thanks! I'm going to save it and use it whenever one of my liberal friends trots out this drivel.

[rellimpank]

--it is rarely mentioned, but in the election that he lost, after which General Pinochet' relenquished power, he received a greater percentage of votes than did Allende when he took office--

[Carry_Okie]

Excellent piece. It must be said that Castro is seeing to it that it doesn't happen again. Venezuela is far further down the tubes than was Chile, given that Chavez has packed the Supreme Court and taken over the police.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

One can hold out some hope for the Venz...

[MattinNJ]

BTTT for a later read.

IMHO, Castro and Chavez need to go. For those about to flame me saying the U.S. should not intervene, it's not in the Constitution, etc...I say the following

1)That all flew out the window with uber liberal Wilson

2)The Monroe Doctrine. Yes I know what it reads. It requires reading between the lines.

3)We spent billions ousting Saddam so some muslims can be free and killed Christian Serbs to help out the heroin smuggling, muslim terrorists supporting KLA. Certainly we can make another two exceptions and insert a few special ops guys to drill a lead injection between Castro and Chavez's eyes. I don't think the spec ops guys mind. From what I know, they kind of enjoy that sort of stuff.

4)I don't like Communists on our doorstep

5)These a$$holes deserve it

[MattinNJ]

Ping

[livius]

Thanks for posting this. Mary Anastasia O'Grady is the best writer on Latin America that I know. I wish she were in the State Department...

[madfly]

ping

[madfly]

ping

[madfly]

ping

[madfly]

ping

[madfly]

ping

[Egregious Philbin]

I think your liberal friends' drivel is just the biased view on the other side of this biased view. Allende was not a complete failure, Pinochet not a complete success. We did, in fact, help a military dictator to overthrow an elected socialist. What the people of Chile did not get was "liberation," rather an American-sponsored regime change that may have curbed socialism in Chile, but at the cost of democracy. Allende's potential damage to Chile is worse than the real damage caused by Pinochet? This spin, in particular, I find sickening:

It was also a teaching opportunity on freedom, the importance of limited government and the rule of law. It was a lob that the secretary could have hit out of the park, Allende's abuse of power being such a clear violation of classical liberal values and constitutional democracy. It was a chance to explain why even an elected president in Venezuela lacks the moral authority to trample individuals, press freedoms or property rights.

Freedom! A military dictatorship is not freedom. What about Pinochet's well-documented abuse of power, his violation of classical liberal values (other than economic) and constitutional democracy? It wasn't until 17 years later (17!) that Pinochet stepped down from power. A serious whitewash of his record. What gave Pinochet, the unelected president, the "moral authority" to trample individuals and press freedoms (oh, but he spared property rights!) The author calls Pinochet "the lesser of two evils." Here, she sounds like she sees no evil at all in Pinochet.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Setting the Record Straight On Allende, Once More***Allende's victory in 1970 came with only 36% of the vote. That meant that congress held power over his win. The Christian Democrats who despised Chile's right but clearly distrusted the radicalized leftist agreed to clear his way only if he accepted a "Statute of Guarantees" to ensure the democracy and the rule of law.

Allende consented so as to get into office but he had no intention of containing his militant constituents, backed by Fidel Castro, and their appetite for power. It is true that the U.S. disliked Allende immensely and considered his victory a big defeat. It is also true that the CIA was lurking about in Latin America during those Cold War years and that the U.S. funded Allende's political opposition. But in the succeeding three years Allende would ruin himself by destroying the country. Chileans would drive him from power. The military had the idea to send him into exile but instead, according the Journal's crack reporter, Everett Martin, who interviewed Allende's doctor, he committed suicide. This has been disputed by Allende supporters but put to rest by reliable testimony.

There is no lack of historical data to back this up. One useful compilation is "Out of the Ashes," by James R. Whelan, a history of Chile from 1833 to 1988. Sharp political divisions helped Allende get and hold power for three years despite his radicalism and his reckless economics. He cleverly used the law to shield himself while he consolidated that power. There were assaults on the press, extensive nationalization of businesses and a methodical effort to build a shadow army, which produced mounting violence throughout the period. The weapons for his informal army were coming from Cuba, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In the end there were enough to "equip a division of 15,000 men," according to Mr. Whelan.***

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learning from Allende: Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

[NativeNewYorker]

The left still smears Milton Friedman for his Chilean actions.

http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001309.html

[Waco]

Allende gve Chile the Kali/Zimbab treatment 30 years early.

[js1138]

I believe Milton Friedman became an economic advisor after the coup. Took a lot of heat from academic types for supporting a military dictator, but never regretted it.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

Thanks for the ping
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list