Sergeyev, F. Chile: CIA Big Business. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1981. 248 pages.

Chile is a well-documented example of covert destabilization by the U.S., and NameBase includes several books on the subject. The CIA had been passing out money since 1964 to influence elections in Chile, but Salvador Allende won the presidency in 1970 anyway. Under orders from Nixon and Kissinger, a broad economic blockade was then launched in conjunction with U.S. multinationals (ITT, Kennecott, Anaconda) and banks (Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank). According to notes taken by CIA director Richard Helms at a 1970 meeting in the Oval Office, his orders were to "make the economy scream." Street demonstrations and various dirty tricks were paid for by the CIA over the next three years to increase the pressure.

The coup wasn't unexpected by the time it happened in September 1973, although the brutality of the junta surprised many because of Chile's democratic traditions. The major media in the U.S. ignored the issue of U.S. complicity until a year later, when Michael J. Harrington (D-MA) leaked details of secret Congressional testimony by William Colby. In late 1975, a Senate Committee headed by Frank Church released a report on "Covert Action in Chile, 1963-1973." By then so much information on Chile was in the public domain that the CIA had decided to trade a "limited hangout" on Chile for the Church Committee's silence on covert operations in five other countries.
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