Another of the unfair accusations often heralded against President Richard Nixon and his assistant Dr. Henry Kissinger is that they overthrew the government of Salvador Allende in Chile and allowed him to be murdered on September 11, 1973. Literally, every bit of that accusation is a total falsehood.
The facts are that Salvador Allende , the world's only elected Marxist-socialist leader, was a devout communist. His government confiscated industry, land, and shut down freedom of the press over its brief three year run. His Communist policies led to massive inflation and total unrest so bad in the nation of Chile that its own Parliament passed a resolution asking the military to seize power and topple the Allende regime. Which it did on September 11, 1973.
The Chilean leader was given countless opportunities to flee his country before holding himself up inside the Presidential Palace. As the Army was starting its final assault on the Palace Salvador Allende took to the airwaves in a final defiant address to his nation and then shot himself, rather than be captured as the coup entered its final stage. None of this was a good way for the regime to fall, but none of it was Richard Nixon or Henry Kissinger's fault either.
President Nixon did pull American investment out of the country. Nixon did work against the Allende Government. But Richard Nixon did not OK the military coup that toppled Allende and he certainly had nothing to do with the death of Allende. Which after a nearly three decade mystery was finally proven to have been self inflicted.
Here again, is the amazing double standard of the liberal left in the United States, when a coup was given approval personally in South Vietnam by John F. Kennedy , it led to the violent overthrow of our ally President Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam and his death , by assassins as he waited in the backseat of his car to flee the country. Not a word has been spoken about it in the mainstream media all the while President Nixon has been trashed as trampling human rights and disregarding a democratically elected regime for three decades.
Occasionally whataboutism does matter!!
Another of the unfair accusations often heralded against President Richard Nixon and his assistant Dr. Henry Kissinger is that they overthrew the government of Salvador Allende in Chile and allowed him to be murdered on September 11, 1973. Literally, every bit of that accusation is a total falsehood.
The facts are that Salvador Allende , the world's only elected Marxist-socialist leader, was a devout communist. His government confiscated industry, land, and shut down freedom of the press over its brief three year run. His Communist policies led to massive inflation and total unrest so bad in the nation of Chile that its own Parliament passed a resolution asking the military to seize power and topple the Allende regime. Which it did on September 11, 1973.
The Chilean leader was given countless opportunities to flee his country before holding himself up inside the Presidential Palace. As the Army was starting its final assault on the Palace Salvador Allende took to the airwaves in a final defiant address to his nation and then shot himself, rather than be captured as the coup entered its final stage. None of this was a good way for the regime to fall, but none of it was Richard Nixon or Henry Kissinger's fault either.
President Nixon did pull American investment out of the country. Nixon did work against the Allende Government. But Richard Nixon did not OK the military coup that toppled Allende and he certainly had nothing to do with the death of Allende. Which after a nearly three decade mystery was finally proven to have been self inflicted.
Here again, is the amazing double standard of the liberal left in the United States, when a coup was given approval personally in South Vietnam by John F. Kennedy , it led to the violent overthrow of our ally President Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam and his death , by assassins as he waited in the backseat of his car to flee the country. Not a word has been spoken about it in the mainstream media all the while President Nixon has been trashed as trampling human rights and disregarding a democratically elected regime for three decades.
Occasionally whataboutism does matter!!