The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability Paperback – September 11, 2013

Great

recommended to anyone with a taste in latin american history. as an individual born in chile, this book opens up an unknown world.

The book came rapidly and in excellent condition. I haven't yet read it, as I am heavy into school as of yet, but as I expect to graduate soon, my time for reading personal interest books is close at hand. I would definitely purchase more books from this seller in the future. Solid packaging, perfect condition book, rapid arrival.

mano mano che documenti ufficiali vengono desecretati, diventa evidente come lo STATO TERRORISTA per ECCELLENZA sono gli STATES
dalle brigate e i nar italiani, passando per le dittature di mezzo mondo, sempre e solo collusioni con delinquenti
KISSINGER attore principale

come fare a biasimare i palestinesi e le popolazioni arabe che osteggiano questo stato?
un dossier agghiacciante
milioni di morti per il profitto di un solo uomo: KISSINGER! (oggi il nostro premier cerca di copiarlo)

The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability...
Peter Kornbluh
The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability...
Peter Kornbluh

Kornbluh comes off as an authority on the subject of Pinochet and Chile/US relations during the 70s and 80s. The book is extensively backed up with references and scans of the actual declassified documents. Only criticism is that once in awhile the timeline jumps around a bit so you have to pay attention.

"The Pinochet File" exposes in stunning detail the truth behind the infamous September 11, 1973 coup against the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile and the United States' guilt in the event. Peter Kornbluh has produced a vast, important, priceless document about how the United States happily sponsored the destruction of democracy in a small South American country and helped install a dictatorship of death and terror. This is a horror story, no question, and it must indeed have been frightening to live in Chile during the reign of Augusto Pinochet if you were a free thinker. Kornbluh shows disclassified documents that detail how the CIA, under orders by President Richard Nixon (who else?), conducted covert operations in Chile to destroy the country's economy once Allende, a socialist, was elected president. Of course the White House could not accept a socialist government in the Americas, much less an ELECTED one. Henry Kissinger is reported here as stating that we should not allow countries to go Communist because of the irresponsibility of their own people, a chilling look into the thinking processes of men not only like Kissinger and Nixon, but like Bush and Cheney. In a sense that is the most important aspect of this book, the way it is still so relevant to our current situation in the world. The April 2002 coup in Venezuela against Hugo Chavez's government, which luckily failed, has all the fingerprints of U.S. involvement, much like the Chile case. Kornbluh meticulously documents both the rise and fall of Allende and the installment of the vicious military junta headed by Pinochet. Kornbluh goes on to report on the various detention centers and concentration camps spread through-out Chile during the regime's years in power, including Colonia Dignidad, an infamous German community said to house Nazi war criminals where Pinochet made alliances to use the spot as a horrific torture center. One of the most surprising chapters in the book, which will be a revelation to many readers unfamiliar with the Chilean story, is the one dealing with American citizens who were unfortunate enough to be in Chile during the coup and were either arrested, tortured or killed. The infamous Operation Condor is described here as well, a clandenstine terrorist network set-up by the military dictatorships of Chile and Argentina to kill any resistance in the hemisphere, all of this ignored by the CIA. "The Pinochet File" will shock many, anger others, it is a darker chapter of not just Latin American history but of our own as well. In a time when we are asking questions about terrorism and foreign policy, it is important to look into the not so distant past because it will tell us how we got here.

After September 11th 2001 the big question on the mind of American's was, `Why do they hate us?' Although the bloody military coup of Gen. Augusto Pinochet was over 30 years ago (ironically September 11th 1973) the lessons and ramifications still resound today. The main villain of the story is Nixon National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger but more so it's the belief that a purity of ideology trumps all other foreign relations concerns. Kissinger is quoted as saying "We [the United States] set the limits of diversity" and in Chile allowing a democratically elected Socialist to remain in power was unacceptable. The author writes, "This would be the first record of an American president [Nixon] ordering the overthrow of a democratically elected government".

I am no fan of neo-conservativism but one aspect of the movement I can appreciate is the desire to merge foreign policy with morality. Whether this has actually occurred is a debate for another book. Kissinger took such an amoral approach to foreign policy with his `realpolitik' that it's no wonder so many people around the world despise the United States. The United States did everything it could, including imposing economic sanctions using the World Bank, financing propaganda and fostering discontent among the military in order to bring down popularly elected president Salvador Allende. The goal was to wreck the economy and create conditions for a right wing takeover. So desperate to destroy Allende were Kissinger and Nixon that the CIA formed a working relationship with Patria y Libertad, a self-proclaimed neo-fascist paramilitary group that engaged in acts of terrorism including bombings who modeled themselves after Hitler's Brownshirts. After the violent coup that cost the lives of thousands of Chileans the U.S. government supported the brutally repressive Pinochet regime by reopening the spigot of foreign money and even selling military hardware while Pinochet's supporters rounded up and executed leftists. Chile wasn't just supported by the U.S. it was favored to the point where it was receiving 80% of all Title I Food for Peace in Latin America and $30 million from AID in housing guarantees compared to $4 million for the rest of Central and South America. Chile became the fifth largest customer of U.S. military weaponry falling just behind Iran.

There were at least as many people in government against what the United States was doing as for and the Republican leadership felt compelled to deliver endless and blatant lies to Congress in order to cover up their actions. This was a nasty, filthy piece of work that did incredible damage to the credibility of the United States and its place as a moral guidepost for emerging countries. So now Chile has come full circle with the election of Socialist Veronica Michelle Bachelet Jeria to the presidency. Venezuelian president Hugo Chavez has already learned that the United States still intends to set the limits of diversity with a U.S. backed coup attempt in 2002.

This is such an important book and if more American's were aware of history we might be less inclined to automatically blame others and spend more time correcting our own moral failings. When American's remain ignorant they become confused by the anger and resentment of others particularly in South America and the Middle East because people in those regions remember American actions quite well. This is not a blame America book but it is a look at actions that no American should be proud of. Chile is but one example of an amoral U.S. foreign policy and the more American's become aware the more we can improve in the future.