Author helps classified documents speak for history

Author Peter Kornbluh accused the Nixon administration of lying about its role in the overthrow of Chilean president Salvador Allende last night. And he had the documents to prove it.

A Freedom of Information Act advocate, Kornbluh spoke about his new book, The Pinochet Files: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability.

Peter Winn, a Latin American specialist within the History Department and Sherman Teichmann, of Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship introduced Kornbluh. According to Teichmann, Kornbluh's message of freedom of information "certainly has resonance for today."

"I am involved in the declassified documents business," began Kornbluh, the director of the Chile project at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. "I call myself the deacon of declassification," he said.

In order to portray how frustrating his job can be, Kornbluh held up a document that had been entirely censored and, beyond the date and letterhead, was solid black ink.

Kornbluh said that if documents related to such important and secretive events as the Iran Contra scandal, the Cuban Missile crisis, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia were declassified, "they could advance the cause of human rights."

According to Kornbluh, the 1973 coup which overthrew Chilean Allende "was the equivalent to Iraq for me at your age."

"Chile became a symbol of the arrogance and abuse of US power," Kornbluh said. "Before Chile, human rights was not a subject for discussion in US foreign policy."

"Chile is really a case study of what is today called the preemptive strike," said Kornbluh, while displaying a declassified document which he identified as the only example of an American president ordering the overthrow of another country's elected president. At the time the document was written, Allende had been elected but not inaugurated. "If that's not a pre-emptive strike, then what the hell is?" asked Kornbluh.

Kornbluh detailed the growing movement within the government to overthrow Allende from a "small secretive effort" to a "broad, government-wide program to destabilize Chile."

Kornbluh said that Nixon and Henry Kissinger's fear was that Allende -- a socialist -- had been elected democratically. Analysis and original documents found in Kornbluh's book prove that the Nixon administration actively worked to bring about a change of leadership in Chile which led to the rise to power of General Augusto Pinochet, who led a brutal regime that ended in the death of thousands of his political opponents.

In his book and during his speech, Kornbluh described the events of US involvement in the coup through juxtaposition of what was said and what was done, mostly through the words Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under the Nixon administration. Winn said that Kornbluh's book showed that Kissinger's actions were "so different from what he said he did and what he wrote he said."

One example involved a press conference given by Kissinger immediately after the coup. "Our position is that we are neutral," Kissinger said. However, in a secret cable unearthed by Kornbluh, the Nixon administration told Pinochet that the US government would "cooperate in any way" with Chile as long as they were sure to "avoid public contact."

Another example involved a meeting of Henry Kissinger and General Pinochet. Kornbluh recounted what Kissinger's memoirs said of the meeting. In his own recollection, Kissinger was a champion of human rights who ensured that Pinochet "got the message" that human rights abuses would not be tolerated. Kornbluh put that next to the actual transcript of the meeting, where Kissinger brought up the issue of human rights and told Pinochet, "The State Department is made up of people who have a vocation for the ministry."

Kissinger also assured Pinochet that "We think you did a great service to the west in overthrowing Allende" and told him that "I want you to succeed."

In a question and answer session, Kornbluh was asked whether he thought that Kissinger would be tried for being complicit in human rights abuses. Kornbluh said that he doubted that Kissinger would ever be convicted of any crimes, but "even if there is not a courtroom verdict for Henry Kissinger, there is a verdict of history" presented in the documents Kornbluh worked to make public.