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

THE CHILEAN CRISIS ANO ITS OUTCOME(*) By PEDRO IBAÑEZ This statement has been prepared in an effort to answer questions that current political events in Chile may raise, , I think ít will be clear that the events in Chile of September 1973 were decisive to my contry's survival as a free nation; that the overthrow of the Allende regime was no ordinary military coup; and that the actíon ofthe Chilean armed forces destroyed a Communist pilot project that was to have been put into operation at a luture date in great Western powers, France was to be one 01 them-according to a statement issued by Mr, Mitlerand after he visited Chile under Allende, In order to discuss Chile's present and luture, however, I must review brielly some key developments 01 the pasl. For the sake 01 brevity, I will only mention two principal factors that have been at work in Chile since the days 01 the Great Depression, The lirst 01 these lactors was a long and continuous process 01 decay 01 our political institutions, The second, a direct result 01 tha! de:;ay, was loreign intervention, 'THE LONG PROCESS OF POLITICAL DECAY The years 1931-32 witnessed the complete c,ollapse and ruin 01 our economy, Political anarchy and disintegration 01 the social system lollowed, even to the extent thát lor a period 01 three months, in 1932, the name 01 the country was changed to the Socialist Republic 01 Chile, In the fúrty years that lollowed, the Chilean institutional Iramework was to undergo all conceivable kinds 01 leftist, socialist and extremist experiments, From the Socialist Republic in 1932 to the Christian Democratic "revolution in liberty" 011964-70, we can trace a continuous process 01 economic socialism and political decay which' undermined our way 01 lile, and linally destroyed our institutional system, Salvador Allende's Marxist government was only the linale 01 this lengthy process 01 disruption, As lar back as 1939 Chile has a Popular Front government in which the Communíst Party was very active, and in which Allende was a cabinet minister. Again, in 1946, communists occupied ministerial posts, The Communist Party was outlawed in 1947, but regained lull civil and political rights ten years later by the action 01 Christian Democratic parliamentarians, The Alessandri administration 01 1958-64 brought a brief hall to the process 01 decline, but was unable to root out the causes that gave it its initial impetus, Next carne the Christian Democratic government 01 Eduardo Freí. Its practical strategy was based on the paradox that only by lollowing socialist policies could it avert a commu– nist take-over, Chileans soon discovered the crass lallacy 01 that doctrine; not only did it laH to block communism, in reality, it left the' doors wide open and paved the way lor il. To gain the support 01 the masses, Christian Democrats used public opinion polls as a basis lor political and economic decisions, and to shape the tone,and content 01 lorthco– ming public addresses, Thus, rather than leading, they were following, Policies and (')Statemenl made before Ihe Council on Foreign Relations, May 1974, Reprinled with permission from the author. 63