The Other September 11: Teaching About the 1973 Overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende
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Social Education 73(6), pp 287–293 ©2009 National Council for the Social Studies The Other September 11: Teaching about the 1973 Overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende Katy Benedetto, Alexandra Lamb, and Robert Cohen eptember 11, 2001, is a day most American high school students remember. the U.S almost always uses the rhetoric They may not fully grasp the events that took place, the reasons behind the of democracy to defend its international Sterrorist attacks on the United States, or their implications, but they remember. role, there are times when it has actu- They were children when this national trauma occurred—and they saw those unfor- ally sabotaged democratic governments gettable television images of the World Trade Center exploding and the Pentagon abroad in instances when those govern- aflame. Every fall they see somber commemorations of the September 11 attacks ments challenge U.S. economic interests and the tragic loss of life left in their wake. But what few of our students—or other and geo-political goals. Such was the case Americans—know is that long before 2001, September 11 has been a tragic histori- in Allende’s Chile in 1973. Teachers cal anniversary in Latin America because it was the day that Chile’s democratically who take on this fascinating case study elected president, Salvador Allende, was overthrown and died in a bloody coup in face the challenging task of conveying 1973. The coup marked the start of a dismal era for Chilean democracy because it led how the U.S. could have undermined to more than a decade of military rule by Augusto Pinochet, whose brutal dictator- Chilean democracy given the historical ship (1973–1990) consolidated itself via crimes against humanity—the disappearance, tradition of valuing freedom, democ- torture, and murder of thousands of dissidents. racy, and self-determination. It forces our students to consider whether a demo- At first glance, the U.S. and Chilean 1973, the U.S. took part in perpetrating cratic frame makes sense in assessing U.S. September 11ths seem most impressive the terror, having helped to destabilize policy towards Latin America during for what they have in common, which the Allende government and covertly the Cold War, and whether the radical is, quite simply, terror: buildings were supported a military coup that resulted critique of the U.S. as an imperialist or destroyed and civilians were killed in in one of the most brutal dictatorships neo-colonial power actually has merit the terrorist attacks on New York and in the Western Hemisphere. Dorfman in helping to explain the Nixon admin- Washington in 2001, and a violent and warns: “Beware the plague of amnesia, istration’s Chilean policy. Examining bloody coup was followed by the instal- America…. Have … you forgotten the this important moment can help stu- lation of a dictator who ruled by terror in Democratic Chile? Demonized, desta- dents empathize with other nations that Chile in 1973. But there is an important bilized by your government in 1973? … have experienced tragedies, and become difference between the two tragedies, a Misruled for seventeen years by a dicta- more acutely aware of the meaning of difference that Chilean novelist, play- tor you helped install?” 1 democracy in the face of such wild con- wright, and human rights activist Ariel Teaching about Chile’s September 11 tradictions. When situations like these Dorfman urges Americans to reflect offers us an opportunity to present our are studied and debated in classrooms, upon. The difference is that while in students with the complexity and con- students practice being active and criti- 2001 America was the victim of terror, in tradictions of U.S foreign policy. While cal citizens in an increasingly complex O CT O BER 2009 287 world and can better participate in ongo- ing debates regarding the at times violent repercussions of U.S. foreign policy.2 This article and the teaching sugges- tions that follow aim to provide a bet- ter understanding of Chile’s September 11 by examining relevant literature, a primary source document, and essays by some of the event’s witnesses (e.g., writings by Ariel Dorfman). We offer a teaching activity centering on one of the most revealing historical sources on the U.S. role in Allende’s Chile, a declassi- fied five-point memorandum written to President Richard Nixon on November 17, 1970, by his national security advisor, Former Secretary of State Henry Henry Kissinger. It outlines covert mea- Kissinger (L) and General Augusto sures that the U.S. government planned to Pinochet (C) stand with two unidentified use to undermine and subvert Allende’s men in this undated file photo. presidency, illuminating the breadth of (Reuters/STR New) American influence abroad and directly implicating the U.S. government in some that the U.S. was “protecting freedom” in that does not respect the sovereignty of of the chaotic events that wracked Chile Chile because freedom was defined in smaller nations. This topic and our teach- in the early 1970s, which destabilized Cold War terms.3 In those terms, Allende ing suggestions are part of a conversation the Allende government and paved the was seen not as a democratically-elected about U.S. foreign policy at large, as it is way for the rise of Pinochet. The covert, president whose government commanded essential for students to gain a perspective even conspiratorial, nature of Nixon and respect, but as a dangerously radical on their country’s controversial role as a Kissinger’s actions leading up to the coup socialist whose opposition to American global power. The study of the September is highly engrossing, leaving students to corporate dominance of the Chilean 11 coup in Chile and the U.S.’s role offers follow and question what happened with economy constituted a threat to U.S. an opportunity to explore difficult and the same rapt attention they might pay to economic interests and free enterprise. emotional subject matter through primary a true crime story. Nixon also saw undermining Allende as and secondary sources, utilizing the skills Our experience teaching about the a way of preventing Chile from aligning of understanding, questioning, unpacking, fall of Allende and using the declas- with the Soviet Union, the major anti- and reevaluating the American historical sified Kissinger memorandum in an capitalist superpower. In that way too, narrative. American Studies class at New York the U.S. involvement could be seen as City’s Stuyvesant High School demon- an act in the service of freedom. But all strated the impact that these complex of our students grappled with the ques- Nixon, Kissinger, and issues can have on students. This study tion of whether such economic interests the Cold War of the memorandum was a way to pro- and geo-political goals justified a U.S. mote student engagement with primary plot to undermine a president who had Nothing important can come from source analysis. The follow-up discus- been democratically elected by his own the South. History has never been sion of United States covert activities and people. produced in the South. The axis of interventions in Latin America led to a Such questions loan themselves to a history starts in Moscow, goes to heated classroom debate about American debate as lively as the important task of Bonn, crosses over to Washington foreign policy and the government’s obli- evaluating the proper role for the United and then goes to Tokyo. What hap- gations to the public regarding the dis- States as an international superpower, pens in the South is of no impor- closure of information about such events. probing the line between national self- tance. Some students were appalled by U.S. interest and imperialism, capitalist inter- subversion of the Chilean democratic ests and democratic ideals. They also —Kissinger, speaking to process, while others were impressed force us to acquaint ourselves with anti- Chilean Foreign Minister by the Nixon administration’s justifica- Americanism, and why the United States Gabriel Valdés4 tion for undermining Allende, asserting is often seen abroad as an arrogant bully S O CIAL EDUCATI O N 288 These remarks by Kissinger to Chile’s into a “red sandwich.” 8 In support of Or were they merely serving the selfish foreign minister in 1969 exemplify the his belligerently anti-Allende policies, interests of such corporations as ITT, Nixon administration’s outlook on Latin Kissinger noted “I don’t see why we Pepsico, Kennecott Copper Corporation, America. Nixon’s troubled history with need to stand by and watch a country Anaconda Copper Mining Company, this region dates back to the Eisenhower go Communist due to the irresponsibil- Firestone Tire and Rubber, Bank of years. In 1958, Nixon, while conduct- ity of its own people.” 9 This was a view America, Ralston Purina, and Dow ing a goodwill tour of South America as that paved the way for U.S. violations of Chemical?11 The natural inquiry that Eisenhower’s vice president, confronted Chilean sovereignty. follows regards Chile’s rights in this mat- demonstrators expressing hostility and ter. Allende believed that some of these anti-American sentiment. The outcry Towards September 11, 1973 companies were exploiting the Chilean was most notable in Venezuela, where What took place in Chile on September people and lands for their own profit. he was spit upon, attacked with rocks, 11, 1973, was the culmination of three In 1968, studies showed that the 28.3 and had his car nearly overturned by years of covert and overt U.S. activities percent of the Chilean people earning a mob. The idea that Latin Americans aimed at bringing down Allende and his the least amount of money received 4.8 might have legitimate grievances escaped Popular Unity government.