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It has been painful to watch President Obama agonize over the appropriate US response to Syria and to other nations of the Middle East. But it is no easy task to balance a complex array of goals and values—advancing democracy, ending humanitarian crises, defending international rules, and protecting US security interests—while trying to avoid undermining US credibility and his own presidency.
Not so long ago, US foreign policy decision-making was much simpler. For one thing, it was far less troubled by principle. The Nixon administration had no scruples about massively intervening in democratic Chile’s 1970 election to defeat Marxist candidate Salvador Allende. Washington financed President Allende’s opponents and media smear campaigns. It openly bought congressional votes when the election ended up in the legislature, and did all it could to provoke the military’s involvement.
Once Allende took power, President Nixon announced he would “make the Chilean economy scream.” The US government cut off almost all aid to Chile and energetically discouraged private and multilateral investment. At the same time, the Washington was generously supporting the activities, legal and illegal, of opposing, often shadowy political forces.
Washington’s role in the actual coup in 1973 is still murky, but US intelligence services had a strong presence in Chile. And they were not there to mediate a peaceful resolution to the country’s bitter strife. From the very beginning, US officials knew about the brutal tortures, murders, and disappearances orchestrated by the new regime – and were fully informed of the killing of two jailed Americans. Secretary of State Kissinger derisively silenced the US ambassador who expressed concern about the military junta’s cruelty. He was ordered to “stop the lessons in political science”.
Washington was indifferent to the fact that the Allende government was a democracy. No, it was not a perfect or even near-perfect democracy, but it was surely among the most open and law-abiding countries in Latin America. But that was just not an issue for the US. It was a dozen years later, with President Reagan in White House, that the US recognized the hypocrisy of claiming to wage war in Central America to promote democracy, while turning a blind eye to General Pinochet’s continuing brutal repression. It was then, thankfully, that Washington started to support a transition to civilian rule in Chile. From Nixon to Obama, the US, along with Chile, has made some progress since in the past 40 years.
