Kissinger & the Coup in Chile: Peter Kornbluh (2005)
yt.artemislena.eu
ORIGINAL: https://www.alternativeradio.org/products/korp002/ Program #KORP002. Recorded in Amherst, MA on February 15, 2005. The 1973 U.S.-directed coup overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile is one of the pivotal moments in 20th century Latin American history. The coup was ordered by Richard Nixon and implemented by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Henry Kissinger. After Allende’s election in 1970, Kissinger infamously demonstrated his dedication to democracy when he said, ” I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.” The coup brought to power General Augusto Pinochet who immediately launched a reign of terror. Kissinger has never been held to account for what he did in Chile. Today, he continues his career as an honored media guest and advisor to Bush and Cheney on Iraq. Speaker: Peter Kornbluh Peter Kornbluh is senior analyst at the National Security Archive in Washington, DC. He is the author of Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report and The Pinochet File.

Look at the very first thing that Kissinger says to Pinochet’s Foreign Minister—literally the very first thing [that] he says to him when the meeting starts. Yes, the Foreign Minister comes in, he says, ‘I want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to talk to you’, and Kissinger’s first statement is, ‘Well, I read the briefing paper for this meeting and it was nothing but human rights. The State Department is made up of people who have a vocation for the ministry. Because there were not enough churches for them, they went into the Department of State.’