The documents above titled, White House, Kissinger, Memorandum for the President, “Subject: NSC Meeting, November 6-Chile,” SECRET, November 5, 1970, details the rise to power of Chiles leftist President Salvador Allende in 1970 and his goals. Salvador Allende is coming into power at a time when the US is heavily involved in the Vietnam War and Cuba’s crackdown on political dissidents and ideology is at an all time high. Issued on November 5, 1970 to the President, Henry Kissinger stresses that “what happens in Chile over the next six to twelve months will have ramifications that will go far beyond just US-Chilean relations” (1970, p.1). The following 7 pages details what is happening, how the US could respond and what those actions might produce. The United States is attempting to maintain its control and influence over the hemisphere, however, Latin American nations are attempting to nationalize industries working against capitalist means of economic development. According to the memorandum from the National Security Archive, Allende is said to “purposely seek: to establish a socialist, Marxist state in Chile; to eliminate US influence from Chile and the hemisphere; to establish close relations and linkages with the USSR, Cuba and other Socialist countries”(1970, p.1).
Three years after the memorandum is issued, Salvador Allende is overthrown by a coup led by Augusto Pinochet. This coup would destabilize the Southern portion of the hemisphere. Six years after the first memorandum announcing Allendes victory is issued and three tears after the coup, “Memorandum of Conversation between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Argentine Foreign Minister Admiral Cesar Guzzetti, Secret, 10 June 1976” takes place. This conversation between Henry Kissinger and Cesar Guzzeti of Argentina highlights the issues created at the fall of the Allende term. A new government focused on privatizing industries and services for the open market prosecuted members and sympathizers of the previous administration. Ultimately this causes a immigration crisis for Argentina who has also experienced a coup of their own. Overthrowing the Peron administration just months prior, the nation was riddled with insurgency, terrorism was their highest concern. Leftist fleeing the fall of the Chilean government under Allende found refuge in Argentina under Peron, the coup in Argentina changed that. Leftist asylum seekers from Chile but also from other countries became entangled with terrorist organizations and guerillas groups. According to the Argentine Foreign minister, “internal subversion is linked up to other countries […] the problem is soluble so long as domestic conditions hold” (1976, p.248). In the memorandum of November 5,1970, Kissinger emphasized that “the dangers of doing nothing are greater than the risks we run in trying to do something” (1970, p.7). However, the option to do something worked against their own interest. Argentina and surrounding countries felt the ripples of the US intervention, and state of affairs of other nations is at risk without further intervention.
Works Cited
- Memorandum of Conversation between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Argentine Foreign Minister Admiral Cesar Guzzetti, Secret, 10 June 1976,” in Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources, 3rd ed.,ed. Alexander Dawson, (Routledge, 2022), p. #245-447
- “White House, Kissinger, Memorandum for the President, ‘Subject: NSC Meeting, November 6-Chile,’ Secret, November 5, 1970.” National Security Archive, nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/30302-document-16-white-house-kissinger-memorandum-president-subject-nsc-meeting-november.