Conspiracy: History’s Greatest Plots, Collusions and Cover-Ups (19 page)

F
UNDING THE CONTRAS
It later emerged that the money made from the sale of arms to Iran was being used to fund the Nicaraguan Contras in their bid to oust the democratically elected government there. Earlier in the decade, a scandal had broken when it was discovered that the CIA were secretly providing help to the Contras and legislation, under the Boland Amendment of 1982, had been drawn up to prevent this happening again. However, National Security Adviser John Poindexter and his aide Oliver North had managed to find a legal loophole. They conducted their business under the auspices of the National Security Council, which was not subject to the Boland Amendment.

It was just a matter of time before the press discovered what was going on and blew the whistle on the scandal. The arms for hostages deal was exposed in 1986, after an incident in which it was discovered that guns were being smuggled into Nicaragua for use by the Contras. Oliver North and Fawn Hall, his secretary, came under scrutiny after they destroyed documents concerning the deal. The administration was eventually forced to admit what had happened.

F
INDING THE CULPRITS
In order to allay criticism, President Reagan ordered a commission, later known as the Tower Commission, to look into the problem. He alleged that he had no idea that arms were being exchanged for hostages and that the profits from the arms were being used to support the Contras in Nicaragua. The Commission named North and Poindexter, mentioned that Weinberger was also involved and suggested that the President should have been more aware of the activities of his staff. In 1987, Congress indicted McFarlane, Poindexter and North and they were convicted on several counts, but these convictions were later overturned. Reagan himself survived the scandal, although it became clear, as information emerged, that he had been involved in the deals, at least to some degree.

The Iran–Contra conspiracy remains one of the biggest scandals to emerge under the Reagan administration. It showed how top government officials acted with no regard for Congressional or international law. They made up their own rules in a secret political game, both within and outside America, that flouted the conventions of democracy and fair play. The fact that all the players in the game were ultimately pardoned has caused many commentators to suggest that conspiracy continues to lie at the heart of the Machiavellian business of government – not just of totalitarian states, but of our great democracies as well.

There are many conspiracy theories about the CIA and its involvement in destabilizing left-wing regimes in foreign countries around the world. Some of them are difficult to take seriously and are born of sheer paranoia, while others seem credible but are difficult to prove. However, in the case of the overthrow of Salvator Allende in the Chilean coup of 1973, it is clear that the CIA ran a covert operation over a number of years in order to undermine the popularity of the democratically elected president. It is also apparent that it was involved in the events that led to his downfall.

T
HE RISE OF
A
LLENDE
Born in Valparaiso, Chile, in 1903, Salvator Allende studied medicine and became involved in radical politics while still a student. In 1933, he helped set up the Chilean Socialist Party, whose aim was to pursue Marxist policies outside the influence of the Soviet Union. He became Minister of Health in 1939 in the government of Aguirre Cedra before becoming a senator. After that he ran for President, finally achieving office in 1970, after three unsuccessful attempts.

As the new President, Allende pledged to solve Chile's pressing economic and social problems. At the time of his presidency, inflation and unemployment had reached drastic proportions and over half of the country's children were suffering from malnutrition. Allende immediately introduced wage increases, froze prices, nationalized the banking and copper industries and began to institute land reforms. This made him extremely unpopular with the United States, which had wide-ranging corporate interests in Chile.

T
HE COUP
In September 1970, President Richard Nixon instructed Henry Kissinger, the American Secretary of State, to support a coup against Allende's socialist government in Chile. Kissinger now claims that although he initially followed the President's orders, he and the CIA later ceased to be involved in the plot. Three years later, there actually was a military coup in Chile which removed Allende and his government from power and installed General Augustus Pinochet as president instead. Allende is thought to have committed suicide during the fighting, by shooting himself with a gun given to him by Fidel Castro.

General Pinochet went on to rule Chile as an authoritarian dictator until 1990 and during his regime he became notorious for human rights abuses. Kissinger and the CIA were accused of being involved in those abuses during that time. They purportedly assisted in the organization of "Operation Condor", a secret, right-wing military group that kidnapped and murdered hundreds of the regime's political opponents throughout the decade of the 1970s.

CIA
INVOLVEMENT?
It has now been proved that from 1963 to 1973 the CIA did its utmost to prevent a socialist government from gaining power in Chile. During the 1964 elections they helped pay expenses for the opposition. They also ran national propaganda campaigns on radio, TV and in the press with the object of demonstrating that Allende's communist policies would ruin the country. Six years later, in the presidential election of 1970, the agency conducted a campaign against Allende himself. Despite this, however, Allende went on to win the election by a narrow margin. After that, the CIA tried to persuade other Chilean politicians to tamper with the political process in order to oust the newly ensconced president, even to the point of organizing a coup. When that also failed, the United States began to exert economic pressure on the country.

In addition to his enemies in the United States, Allende had plenty of opponents in Chile itself, people who stood to lose wealth and power as a result of his policies. Moreover, the change in the political direction of the country had caused a number of economic and social problems, which were exacerbated by the hostile stance of the United States. In particular there was a strong current of opposition against Allende within the military, and it was from this quarter that the coup of 1973 was mounted against him.

Today, it is still unclear to what degree the CIA were involved in organizing the coup. There is no doubt, however, that some form of covert action took place in Chile during Allende's years in office and that the CIA was still continuing its campaign against him at the time of the coup.

P
ROJECT
F
UBELT
Numerous investigations have helped clarify the role of the United States in the Chilean coup, although some believe that the full truth has yet to come out. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has admitted that although Nixon did not have a direct hand in the coup, he "created the conditions as great as possible" for it. Also, according to recently declassified documents, the United States government tried to oust Allende under "Project Fubelt" in 1970. At that time, the CIA had links with General Roberto Viaux, who was planning a coup against the president which involved kidnapping the army chief of staff General René Schneider. (Schneider opposed the idea of military intervention on constitutional grounds.) The coup misfired in an episode that led to the death of General Schneider.

Afterwards, Kissinger maintained that the CIA had withdrawn from the plot. There is still no hard evidence to connect the CIA with the subsequent coup in 1973, but its involvement in this earlier attempt naturally fuels suspicion. It has also been pointed out that much of the information remains classified. In recent years, it has also become clear that although the United States government publicly criticized Pinochet, the CIA supported the military junta and paid many of the officers to become informants. Some of these officers, it has been alleged, were party to human rights abuses, although the CIA has denied this claim.

A
FTERMATH
Victims of the Pinochet regime have now begun to take legal action against the United States government and the CIA. In 2001, the family of General René Schneider accused Kissinger of plotting to murder the general because of his opposition to the military coup. It was discovered that although the CIA had discussed kidnapping Schneider they had not intended to kill him. Kissinger maintained that he and Nixon had decided not to back the coup at the last minute.

Whatever the truth of the matter, it remains clear that over a number of years the role of the CIA in Chile was to undermine the career of Salvator Allende and prevent the success of a socialist government by means of a series of underhand dealings with his opponents. The CIA eventually achieved its aim – but the popular image of the United States as a protector of democracy was compromised. Thus, in the case of Chile, the conspiracy theorists were proved right.