Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

PROSPECTS FOR UNITED STATES-CHILE· RELATIONS(*) By ERNEST W. LEFEVER(**) Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your invilation to testify on U.S. relations with Chile at this crucial time when this respecled Andean country has become a svmbol of our ties with Latín America as a whole. I am not a Latín American expert, bul in my research at the Brookings Institution I have made an extensive study of U.S. mi Iitary and police assistancetothe Third World, including Central and South America. Further, I have recently returned from an eleven-day (July 1-11) field Irip lo Chile in the company 6f two academic colleagues, Dr. Riordan Roet!. Director of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Albert Blaustein of the Law School at Rutgers University. We went to Chile not to praise or lo blame, but lo understand the complex polítical situalion whíCh, in our view, has receíved far from adequate coverage in the American press. In my opinion, the one-sided reporting of current realíties in Chile seems lo reflect in part the extensive propaganda effort to vi lify the present government by partisans of the former regime of President Allende. In any event, our visit to Santiago W8S independent, unsponsored, and hopefully scholarly. We had no partisan or organizational ax to grind. We went on our own time and did not represent our institutions. We interviewed some 75 differenl individuals from a broad political eross section and varying degrees of objectivity. Among Chileans, we interviewed former President Frei; four members of the Allende cabinet (one of whom was in detention); Cardinal Silva and other church leaders concerned with human rights; university officials, leachers and students; lawve~s representing bolh the proseculion and defense al Ihe Air Force trials; and high government officials, including General Gustavo Leigh, a member of the Junta. Among the foreign observers, we saw U.S. Ambassador David Popper and other senior members of the American Embassy and representatives of Ihe embassies of Canada, Mexicó, and Israel, and of International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.N. High Commissioner for 'Refugees, I believe il is safeto say thatwe interviewed a broader spectrum of Chilean and foreign opinion than any other group that has gone there since the September 11, 1973, coup. Some ofthese groups had a rather narrow range of concern, and they found exactly what they were looking for lo confirm their preconceptions. The American press has given considerable attention to the highly critical conclusions of these groups. Because of the inherent complexily of the situation and my comparatively brief expo– sure lo it, my findings should be accorded less authority than those of competent, full-time observers, such as our well-informed U.S.·Embassy officers in Santiago. I would like to make my observations by addressing four broad questions: 1)What is the basis of U.S. policy in Latín America? 2) Why did the Allende regimefail? 3) How well is (')Statement be/ore the Subcommittee on Inler-American Affairs. t:louse Committee on Foreign Affairs. Hearings on Prospects lor United States..chilean Relations. August 5, 1974. (")The views expressed are the sOle responsibil ity 01 the author and do not purport to represent those 01 the Brookings Institutíon. ils olficers, trustees, or other stafl members. . 271