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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFuck Henry Kissinger: 40 years later, Chile struggles with legacy of Pinochet coup
This is what the vile old war criminal was in up to his neck. No, a U.S. SoS should not be seeking his advice on anything.
The Chilean air force doesnt celebrate the only combat mission it ever flew. On this day 40 years ago, its jets bombed radio transmitters, the presidents residence, and the presidential palace in Santiago. The strikes were precise, and also effective. Before the fires were out, generals had overthrown Salvador Allende, the worlds first democratically elected Marxist president and replaced him with a military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet.
But as a now democratic Santiago marks the anniversary, the actual planes that did the bombing are scattered to parts unknown. The pilots have never taken credit or responsibility. Instead, on this anniversary, one message rings clear: Never again.
But a pledge not to repeat history isnt enough for some. The division between searing, painful memory and ongoing amnesia remains stark in Chile as the country marks the day that changed everything. There are also deep disagreements over how to ensure that history isnt repeated -- with some calling for forgiveness, and others still pursuing justice for those killed and disappeared by Pinochets 17-year dictatorship.
<snip>
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2013/0911/40-years-later-Chile-struggles-with-legacy-of-Pinochet-coup-video
Beautiful music from Victor Jara (listen to this!) who was murdered under Pinochet. Kissinger has his blood on his gore stained hands:
<snip>
Shortly after the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973, he was arrested, tortured and ultimately shot dead with 44 machine-gun bullets. His body was later thrown out into the street of a shanty town in Santiago.[2] The contrast between the themes of his songs, on love, peace and social justice and the brutal way in which he was murdered transformed Jara into a symbol of struggle for human rights and justice worldwide.
<snip>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Jara
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)reasons, this and Watergate are just a couple of them.
russspeakeasy
(6,539 posts)"it was a long and painful death".
.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)I'm hoping some day another nation does what ours won't and bring him to justice.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Working as an adviser to the White house. (I know that was true in 2009; don't know if or when he got bumped out.)
Hydra
(14,459 posts)As I said there, consulting with Republicans for Repub solutions to Repub created problems.
Crazy world.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)ODDS is warping your perspective.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)John Kerry isn't the one to blame.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)because Obama!
2banon
(7,321 posts)sort of kindred spirits with Assad (in a manner of speaking) one could say, and not be too far off the mark.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)RetroLounge
(37,250 posts)RL
leftstreet
(36,117 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Fuck that war criminal
Waiting For Everyman
(9,385 posts)who some think is so cool now. The two of them rampaged over large chunks of the world, and here at home too... while the Silent Majority failed to notice that anything at all was going on.
That's a beautiful (the music) and powerful video, cali, thank you!
Solly Mack
(90,792 posts)No integrity. No honor. No decency. No high ground. No high ideals or beliefs. All cut from the same rotten cloth.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Three songs are guaranteed to make me cry and that's one of them. Thanks for posting it
I'll know we're serious about justice and war crimes the day dark souls like Kissinger are turned over to a World Court or to the courts of the countries they terrorized.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)down the people. Could we have been so wrong about our president and people like they did back then.
JEB
(4,748 posts)feels on the flesh of rotting human corpses. Has Cheney over for dinner.
kmkleff
(15 posts)That week Bruce Springsteen was on the cover of both Time and Newsweek. I admire Springsteen a lot, but have always harbored this resentment about him being used to take the spotlight away from our responsibility for this profound tragedy.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Last edited Sat Sep 14, 2013, 12:29 AM - Edit history (1)
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/bruce-springsteen-honors-chilean-folk-hero-victor-jara-in-santiago-20130913WillyT
(72,631 posts)Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Fuck Kissinger.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)A thousand Chileans lay on the street as a protest-action 40 years after US backed massacre and coup against the people & Government
RetroLounge
(37,250 posts)He shoulda been hung for war crimes.
RL
Boomerproud
(7,970 posts)He has stories to tell. Kissinger has blood on his hands. He can never enter Chile.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)snip* What new documents or evidence have become available since the first release of the book, 10 years ago?
There is a fascinating story that turned into a saga of Henry Kissinger reacting in a very hostile manner to the release of the book. One of the major new additions is an afterword on Kissingers response.
That story revolves around his role in the [Orlando] Letellier - [Ronni] Moffit assassination case and Operation Condor what he did and didnt do about Condor.
Kissinger was very concerned that he would be tarred and feathered with the idea that he could have detected and deterred this operation to assassinate Orlando Letellier. That is what my book argued and what the reviewer wrote in Foreign Affairs [Kissinger] really got very upset about this.
We went out in the years that we were debating this with him and filed more FOIAs to get the record out on what exactly had happened and we did get some additional documents which weve put at the end of the book. [They] make it clear that he first authorized a demarche to Pinochet before the Letellier assassination and then rescinded the demarche. This is what he denied doing but we finally found this cable where he did rescind it just before the Letellier assassination took place.
My office, the National Security Archive, was also very forcefully involved in pushing for the retrieval of Kissingers telcons these are 30,000 pages of transcripts of telephone conversations that Kissinger had from 1969-1977, first as national security adviser then as secretary of state.
Kissinger walked away with these 30,000 pages claiming they were personal private papers when in fact he wanted them to be able to write a comprehensive memoir for which he was paid millions of dollars. He basically appropriated the property of the American public and used it for private gain to skew his own version of history. He could write what he wanted, pick out what he wanted from these transcripts but the rest of us wouldnt be able to verify or see what the real fuller context was.
Thats what he did in the case of Chile. He wrote an amazingly self-serving chapter about his role in the issue of Allende and support for Pinochet in which he completely misrepresented, obfuscated and lied about the history of his own policies. We prepared a lawsuit against the U.S. government for allowing him to steal U.S. property.
They were declassified in stages starting in 2004 and we are still trying to get the most sensitive of them out even though it is almost ten years later. [The documents] include material on Chile. The very first thing that I looked for and the first thing I found was Nixon and Kissingers first conversation after the coup in which they pat themselves on the back for this great accomplishment. The Chilean thing is consolidated, Kissinger says. And then they complain about the liberal press and how they cant take credit for overthrowing Allende because the press is like a bleeding lamb over the overthrow of Allende.
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/opinion/question-answer/26706-chiles-coup-40-years-on-a-qaa-with-author-of-the-pinochet-files
vlakitti
(401 posts)I suppose very few people today in this country know of this brutally shameful betrayal of democracy.
But rest assured, everyone in Latin America does.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)A man of the people. His widow has been able to reassemble his recordings, its taken decades, but they are now available on CD. I have a couple... very beautiful and inspiring songs.
As an aside, a good friend's father was a student at University of Santiago at the time of the coup, Victor Jara was one of his professors. He was able to make it out of Chile to Brazil, where my friend was born, the family later emigrated to the US. The father became a celebrated artist, his son (my friend) is a noted musician. The father never speaks of the coup, I guess its too painful. I hope he'll tell his story one day, though...just so it won't be forgotten.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Thirteen miles in 90 degree heat. Very uplifting
Joe Shlabotnik
(5,604 posts)Fuck Kissinger.