Secret documents show Salvador Allende’s fear of the United States



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The administration of former US President Richard Nixon viewed the election of Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1970 as a “serious threat” to US interests and positions on the American continent, according to confidential documents now revealed.

According to the Efe agency, government documents that were secret and were released by the National Security Agency (NSA) explain the shock that the election of Salvador Allende, in Chile, caused in the tenure of Richard Nixon (1969-1974). in the United States. .

In one of the memos sent to Nixon on November 5, 1970, then councilor Henry Kissinger – who would later become Secretary of State – considered the presidency of Salvador Allende “one of the greatest challenges ever faced by the continent”.

Kissinger considered Salvador Allende “a hard and devoted Marxist”, “deeply anti-American”, who sought to weaken the influence of the United States in Chile and, by force, in other South American countries.

The adviser stressed that any decision by Richard Nixon prior to Allende’s presidency “could be the most historic and difficult to make, because what happens in Chile in the next six to twelve months will have ramifications beyond US-Chile relations.” .

On November 6, the then director of intelligence (CIA), Richard Helms, reported at a meeting of the National Security Council of the failed attempts of an operation to prevent Allende from taking office.

With this information, Richard Nixon confirmed, at the meeting, the idea that Salvador Allende was a political threat to the influence of the United States on the American continent: “Brazil has a larger population than France and England combined. If we allow to potential leaders of South America think they can act like Chile, we will have problems.

Salvador Allende, elected president of Chile in 1970, committed suicide on September 11, 1973, during a US-backed military coup.

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