General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Woman Disappeared
Forty years ago today, the United States succeeded in its conspiracy with International Telephone and Telegraph to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile. Allende was a socialist committed to democracy. Henry Kissinger, the principal architect of the coup, considered Allende a far greater threat to US interests-- and corporate capitalism in particular--than Fidel Castro, precisely because Allende was democratic and could have set an example for socialist movements throughout Europe and Latin America.
Allende's overthrow and assassination was followed by two decades of brutal dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet, whose government rounded up, tortured, and disappeared tens of thousands of Chileans. The US was aware of the torture and killings in Chile. Kissinger, in fact, observed that a minor concern like human rights should not get in the way of a good relationship with a friendly government like Pinochet's. Among the disappeared were some prominent Chileans, like the poet and folk singer Victor Jarra, and some ordinary, like the woman commemorated in this song performed by the weavers, which I find myself singing all day.
For documentary evidence on the US involvement in the coup, see the National Security Archives.
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB212/index.htm
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Thought you might be interested in this OP:
Sept. 11 special edition: Peter Kornbluh, the director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project, on what we still dont know about Chiles 1973 coup.
Peter Kornbluh has worked for more than 30 years piecing together the history of relations between the United States and Chile surrounding the 1973 coup that deposed Chiles Marxist President Salvador Allende and ushered in a 17-year dictatorship led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and various declassification campaigns, Kornbluh compiled thousands of documents that provide a window into the nuanced world of U.S. foreign policy. This extensive work is the basis for his book The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, named one of the best books of 2003 by The Los Angeles Times when it was first published.
On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the coup, Kornbluh re-released the book and spoke with The Santiago Times about his work, what new information he has found since the books first publication and what is still left to learn about that pivotal moment in Chilean history.
What new documents or evidence have become available since the first release of the book, 10 years ago?
There is a fascinating story that turned into a saga of Henry Kissinger reacting in a very hostile manner to the release of the book. One of the major new additions is an afterword on Kissingers response.
remainder: http://www.santiagotimes.cl/opinion/question-answer/26706-chiles-coup-40-years-on-a-qaa-with-author-of-the-pinochet-files
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)on the homepage of the National Security Archives.
I did not know that the Brazilian military was involved in the coup. That is interesting. I wonder if they were also involved in Argentina?
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)BainsBane
(53,035 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)BainsBane
(53,035 posts)But I since found this http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB312/index.htm
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB125/condor01.pdf
but I was asking about the coup that brought the Argentine military to power.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)involvement with regards to Operation Condor.
malaise
(269,054 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)BainsBane
(53,035 posts)BainsBane
(53,035 posts)Poema XV
Me gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente,
y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te toca.
Parece que los ojos se te hubieran volado
y parece que un beso te cerrara la boca.
Como todas las cosas están llenas de mi alma,
emerges de las cosas, llena del alma mía.
Mariposa de sueño, te pareces a mi alma,
y te pareces a la palabra melancolía.
Me gustas cuando callas y estás como distante.
Y estás como quejándote, mariposa en arrullo.
Y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te alcanza:
Déjame que me calle con el silencio tuyo.
Déjame que te hable también con tu silencio
claro como una lámpara, simple como un anillo.
Eres como la noche, callada y constelada.
Tu silencio es de estrella, tan lejano y sencillo.
Me gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente.
Distante y dolorosa como si hubieras muerto.
Una palabra entonces, una sonrisa bastan.
Y estoy alegre, alegre de que no sea cierto.
Poema XV
I like it when you're quiet. It's as if you weren't here now,
and you heard me from a distance, and my voice couldn't reach you.
It's as if your eyes had flown away from you, and as if
your mouth were closed because I leaned to kiss you.
Just as all living things are filled with my soul.
you emerge from all living things filled with the soul of me.
It's as if, a butterfly in dreams, you were my soul,
and as if you were the soul's word, melancholy.
I like it when you're quiet. It's as if you'd gone away now,
And you'd become the keening, the butterfly's insistence,
And you heard me from a distance and my voice didn't reach you.
It's then that what I want is to be quiet with your silence.
It's then that what I want is to speak to you your silence
in a speech as clear as lamplight, as plain as a gold ring.
You are quiet like the night, and like the night you're star-lit.
Your silences are star-like, they're a distant and a simple thing.
I like it when you're quiet. It's as if you weren't here now.
As if you were dead now, and sorrowful, and distant.
A word then is sufficient, or a smile, to make me happy,
Happy that it seems so certain that you're present.
Translated and © Robert Hass 2004, from City Lights' The Essential Neruda
http://www.redpoppy.net/poem3.php
snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)On Kissinger, around Chile etc.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/12/hitchens200412
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)Cheering on the Iraq war and insulting it's opponents. I took it as long as I could before walking out. I will always associate him and Tom Friedman with cheerleading for that war. I know Hitchens wasn't wrong on everything, but he was wrong on that very important thing. And his trip against Mother Theresa was very strange.
His discussion of Videla's baby stealing in the linked article brings to mind one of the greatest films ever made: The Official Story (La historia oficial). You can actually watch the whole thing on YouTube, which I'm sure is a copyright violation. Netflix will also have it.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=la+historia+oficial&oq=la+historia+oficial&gs_l=youtube.3..0l10.13584.17244.0.17570.19.9.0.10.10.1.151.705.6j3.9.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.phYf_b02A2U
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Here's I believe a more workable link to the same for you:
I will watch it when I have a little more time, absolutely. Thanks.
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)so as not to involve DU. It's a great film. It won the Oscar for best foreign film sometime in the mid 80s.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Still, I can s/d the message if need be.
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)Whatever works for you.
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)I do appreciate that, despite my resentment toward Hitchens. I probably wouldn't feel quite so strongly if I hadn't had him insult my motives, to my face, for opposing the Iraq War.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Bush apologist.
Not long after I came across the Trials of Henry Kissinger, and again I couldn't believe it was the same dude.
Hitch obviously elicits strong feelings, but he did do some very good work documenting what went down with Chile, along with Vietnam and bs around the Paris Accords in '68.
Edited to add: I agree with him on Mother Teresa.
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)and somehow poverty is her fault? Better to be a war profiteer?
Here is one critique of his book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Missionary_Position
I also do the former, and I can't say I feel good about myself for it. Mother Theresa did more to help the needy in a week than I have done in my entire life.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)I think she benefited from some very good and in many cases undeserved PR.
I think there are lots of people who not only aren't war profiteers but who also have managed to help the poor without spreading dangerous and reactionary messages around things like birth control.
Still, not the topic of the thread, so, like I said.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Before that, he was a leftie; after that, he became like an Islamic menace kind of guy.
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)I don't think he ever repented for Iraq either, at least not publicly.
Uncle Joe
(58,366 posts)Thanks for the thread, BainsBane.
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)BainsBane
(53,035 posts)to Kissinger, like he isn't a war criminal. That as much as anything illustrates why the US needs to sign on to the International Criminal Court.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)Usually, when someone posts such links and starts a thread they have an opinion on the matter.
Where is your opinion?
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)because I didn't say "fuck Kissinger"? That's unfortunate.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)that was explained through a narrative. If you don't have one, that's ok too.
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)I included the information I thought was relevant and the sources I thought helpful. The post is my opinion. Do you actually think someone who approves of the US backed coup and subsequent torture and murder would highlight them? They pretend they don't exist or explain how there were justified because of the threat of communism. They certainly don't lament the disappeared. My opinion is clear through the way I structured the narrative.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)with not a single opinion in sight.