Ariel Dorfman on the 1973 coup d'etat in Chile

It is oddly appropriate that Henry Kissinger should have died in the year that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1973 military coup in Chile — the cataclysmic overthrow of its democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and the end of a fleeting attempt to create a socialist society without resorting to violence, a first in the history of revolutions. 

As national security advisor to President Nixon, Kissinger ferociously opposed Allende and destabilized the Chilean government by every means possible.  He considered that, were Chile’s peaceful movement for social and economic justice to succeed, American hegemony would suffer.  He feared that the example might spread and affect the world balance of power. 

And Kissinger not only fostered the ousting of a democratically elected foreign leader, he subsequently supported the murderous regime of General Augusto Pinochet, even as the dictatorship was massively violating the human rights of Chile’s citizens, most egregiously in the cruel and terrifying practice of “disappearing” opponents.

~ Ariel Dorfman, "Saying Goodbye to Kissinger the Criminal," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2023