The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet [Hardcover]

Heraldo Munoz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2008

Augusto Pinochet was the most important Third World dictator of the Cold War, and perhaps the most ruthless. In The Dictator’s Shadow, United Nations Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz takes advantage of his unmatched set of perspectives—as a former revolutionary who fought the Pinochet regime, as a respected scholar, and as a diplomat—to tell what this extraordinary figure meant to Chile, the United States, and the world.

Pinochet’s American backers saw his regime as a bulwark against Communism; his nation was a testing ground for U.S.-inspired economic theories. Countries desiring World Bank support were told to emulate Pinochet’s free-market policies, and Chile’s government pension even inspired President George W. Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. The other baggage—the assassinations, tortures, people thrown out of airplanes, mass murders of political prisoners—was simply the price to be paid for building a modern state. But the questions raised by Pinochet’s rule still remain: Are such dictators somehow necessary?

Horrifying but also inspiring, The Dictator’s Shadow is a unique tale of how geopolitical rivalries can profoundly affect everyday life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's reign (1973–1990) still resonates for its brutality and its role in pioneering controversial free-market development policies. This thoughtful retrospective explores that history from a unique perspective. Muñoz, an official in the Allende government overthrown by Pinochet in 1973, found himself vainly confronting the coup with a revolver and a fistful of dynamite, dodging arrest while friends disappeared into the junta's dungeons. In the 1980s he became a leader of the moderate left opposition. His first-hand account of the political movement that, with crucial help from abroad, forced Pinochet from power in 1990, is both shrewd and inspiring. Muñoz, who is now Chile's ambassador to the U.N., is measured in his condemnation of the dictatorship and cognizant of the unstable political environment that formed it. He gives the regime's economic program mixed reviews, on the one hand crediting it with reinvigorating Chile's economy while admitting that it has left most Chileans worse off. He paints Pinochet as a complex character—a canny operator, a man of limited intellect and an ideological lightning rod. Combining sharp historical analysis with telling personal recollections, this is an excellent assessment of a tyrant and his legacy. Photos. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

This memoir of Munoz’s life in post-Allende Chile begins on the day in 1973 when the country’s democratically elected government was violently overthrown, and General Pinochet, who proved to be a ruthless dictator, assumed power. Munoz, who stayed as an anti-Pinochet revolutionary in Chile after the coup and—years later, after Pinochet was gone—became the country’s deputy foreign minister, tells a powerful story of greed, ambition, political manipulation, and appalling mistreatment of ordinary citizens. He also examines the role of the U.S.(and other countries) in keeping Pinochet in power—a dictator, so the thinking went, was better than a Communist regime—and details some of Pinochet’s policies that were emulated by other countries (George W. Bush was inspired by Pinochet to launch a plan to privatize Social Security). Shying away from the sort of Pinochet-was-a-monster rhetoric one might expect, Munoz seems more interested in showing us the real person: a man of limited intelligence who was both puppet master and puppet, dictator and savior, villain and hero. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st ed edition (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465002501
• ISBN-13: 978-0465002504
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Chile

More About the Author

Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz was deputy foreign minister of Chile between March 2000 and January 2002 and minister secretary-general of government prior to assuming his present post as Chilean ambassador to the UN. In that capacity, and as the recent president of the UN Security Council, he was a direct participant in the diplomatic initiatives and negotiations on key international issues, from Iraq and Lebanon to Sudan and Haiti. Ambassador Muñoz earned his PhD in international studies from the University of Denver. He has been a visiting professor or lecturer at several universities and has published more than a dozen books and numerous essays.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, December 25, 2008

By 

Rogerio Lessa - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet (Hardcover)

This is a serene , well written and easy to read annalysis of a cruel period in the history of Chile. A must for those who want to learn from the mistakes of the past and to learn that repression, hate, absence of the rule of law and of political freedom are not the only possible ways to accomplish economic prosperity and stability for the nations.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Book, March 12, 2010

By 

Neil Whitbeck - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet (Hardcover)

Mr. Munioz has provided a detailed, interesting account of President Pinochet's rule and the concerted effort to re-establish democracy in Chile. I was particularly interested in the steps taken to pry Pinochet from power. For those of us with great fondness for Chile and her people, this was a wonderful story of how Chileans reinstated democratic rule which had so long been their birthright. Chile vencera', indeed.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting side of the Pinochet story, November 24, 2010

By 

Lehigh History Student (Bethlehem, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet (Hardcover)

Heraldo Munoz, a former leader in the left movements of Chile, provides a look at the dictator Augusto Pinochet who ruled with an iron fist in Chile throughout the 1970's and early 80's. Munoz provides what he terms as a political memoir to look at the changes surrounding the regime from those who opposed it throughout the time of Pinochet. One point that has to be appreciated from this book is that while it captures the horrors of Pinochet's time it does not go through a categorical list of atrocities as most Pinochet books do. Munoz focuses instead on what was changing in Chile and how it fit into a wider global context vis a vis communism an d the west. While clearly gloating over the fall of Pinochet and outright mocking Pinochet's defense at trial this book gives one sides account of the story and it is a side that has not been told in this much detail from one on the ground yet. For those who are starting out in this subject I would not recommend this book as it assumes a decent knowledge of Chile and does not give a balanced look at the sides. For those who have read more this is an excellent addition to the literature on the topic and a wonderful primary source for those looking into the history of Chile.