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

appointee, let me say, I was appointed by three Presidents; I never gave a vote, a word, or a dollar to Me Nixon, and he fullilled his obligations to me, although he knew that I would never vote tor him. Now I think it's outrageous that civil servants are being hauled up now lor doing what was a superb protessional jObo You can't have it bolh ways, ask people to be prolessional and carry out the laws 01 the United States, and at the same time ruin their careers by this public trial without benelit 01 a hearing. I think that's outrageous. BUCKLEY: Professor Beverly Kerr is also at the law school at SMU. BEVERL y KERR: Thank you. I'd like to direct a question to Ambassador Korry. I certainly agree with you, Ambassador, that Chile was one 01 the exceptional democracies that one sees on the world scene. I was tormerly a student in Chile, and relurned lo Chile in 1973. I am a little dislurbed by some 01 Ihe comments thal you made aboul the Allende governmenl and his party out lo wipe oul democracy. J would concede thal Allende and his government were certaínly out lO change the economic system, and probably would have ultimately wiped out the capitalist model as we know it, and have gone lo a command model. On the other hand, when I was in Chile in 1973, under the Allende government, Irom what I perceíved personally there was stíll Iree expression, Ireedom 01 the press, Ireedom 01 the radio, ele. Now whatever Ihe role 01 the U.S. Government may or may not have been in brínging about the coup and the change -1 wi II keep an open mínd on Ihat- but il we had any role in this, then surely what we have achieved, according to the OAS statistics, there's somelhing between seven thousand and ten thousand pOlitical prisoners. The head 01 the junta said the other day that their government may be in power ten, twenty, or thírty years. Democracy certaínly appears to be dead ín Chile at Ihe moments. An sowhat I saw under Allende seemed lo indicate a rather ample propagation olwhat we would call Ireedom 01 expression. KORRY: I think Ihe point is well taken as to what succeeded Allende. But what succeeded Allende was a consequence of what he did. The army was apolítica/. II was Allende that brought Ihe army into the government repeatedly, to assume responsibility lor the actions that he was taking, and lo give him legitimacy. He políticized an apolitical army, and that.army when I was there was overwhelmíngly, including the present díctator in Chíle, General Pinochet, overwhelmingly in lavor of Allende. Now that's got to be kept clearly in mind, that he accomplished that'task, nobody else. We had just aboul cut off all relations, more than pro lorma, with the Chilean armed lorces in my lime. The míl itary mission in Chile had gone, in my lour years, Irom sixty-eighl down lo thirteen. That was his doing. Secondly, you cannot have it both ways. 11, as President Ford has said, the United States were to support Chilean media so that they could stay alive, you cannot then say that it was Mr. Allende that gave them freedom 01 expression. Let me just, il I have Ihe time, just enumerate the kinds 01 Ihings he was doing in my tíme, 71, not 72-73. A) He had just about eliminated all sources 01 advertising for the newspapers. He controlled all their credit, that is through the banks, and he was not going to give credit unless they gave him political support. We knew this lor a lac!. Three, through the Minisler 01 Labor -and Chile became the only place except Ihe Soviet Uníon where Ihe head 01 the trade union movement was the same person as the Minister of Labor. That's jusi not done il you wanl a Iree labor movement. The pressures on the unions lo strike... KERR: I concede on the economíc. I'm talking abouL KORRY: That's nol economíc, that's política!. There is no such thíng as diversíty ín society where you have highly centralízed control. Allende said to me and to others that he did not believe in, say, the Yugoslav workers-management role; he did not believe in the 296