Big-Time Embarrassment

TNI

November 2005

Big-Time Embarrassment
Newly Opened Files Show Kissinger Privately Promised Pinochet Support
While Publicly Decrying Human Rights AbusesLucy Komisar
Jinn Magazine, 3 January 1999

'Although he is usually considered to have played a major role in the coup which brought General Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger always kept his distance from Pinochet in public. A
newly declassified memo about the only meeting between the two suggests that if secret files on Chile are opened - as they will be if Pinochet is tried in Spain - they will be extremely embarrassing to Kissinger. PNS correspondent Lucy Komisar, a New York journalist, is working on a book about US foreign policy and human rights in several countries, including Chile, in the 1970s and
1980s.'

The secret US files on Chile, which the Clinton administration promises to open to the Spanish prosecutor of Augusto Pinochet, will prove a major embarrassment for Henry Kissinger. The files show Kissinger, then US Secretary of State, seeking to persuade Pinochet that the US government did not consider his behaviour - including mass arrests of political prisoners - a major problem. Although Kissinger is the American most tied to the US-assisted coup overthrowing the elected government of Salvador Allende which put Pinochet in power in 1973, the two only met once after those events. A newly declassified memorandum about that meeting details how Kissinger praised Pinochet and assured him that the US would not punish him for violating human rights. The meeting took place on June 8, 1976, during a gathering of the Organization of American States (OAS). Also present were Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs William Rogers, Chilean Foreign Minister Patricio Carvajal and Ambassador to the US Manuel Trucco. (I have interviewed Rogers, Carvajal and Trucco about this meeting, but not Kissinger, who has refused requests.)
Kissinger, dogged by charges he had promoted the military coup, maintained a cool distance from Pinochet in public. But at this confidential meeting, he promised warm support. 'In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here', Kissinger said, according to the memorandum. 'I think that the previous government was headed toward Communism. We wish your government well'. He dismissed American human rights campaigns against Chile's government as 'domestic problems'.

The OAS Human Rights Commission had reported that mass arrests, torture, and disappearances continued in Chile, and the US media were pressing Kissinger for a statement. Kissinger assured Pinochet that his remarks should not be seen as a criticism of Chile. 'I will treat human rights in general terms and human rights in a world context', he told the general.
Kissinger said his statements were in fact calibrated to avoid damage to Chile. 'I can do no less without producing a reaction in the US which would lead to legislative restrictions. The speech is not aimed at Chile'. And he emphasized that he himself did not credit the charges against Pinochet's regime. 'My evaluation is that you are a victim of all left-wing groups around the world, and that your greatest sin was that you overthrew a government which was going Communist'. Kissinger promised to work against sanctions, in particular to defeat the 'Kennedy amendment', banning arms aid to governments that were gross human rights violators. 'I don't know if you listen in on my phone', he joked, 'but if you do, you have just heard me issue instructions to Washington to make an all-out effort to do just that -if we defeat it, we will deliver the F-5E's (fighter planes) as we agreed to do. We held up for a while in order to avoid providing additional ammunition to our enemies'. In case Pinochet had any lingering doubts, Kissinger said, 'We welcomed the overthrow of the Communist-inclined government here'. He told him he had encouraged the OAS to meet in Santiago to give Chile prestige.

Pinochet complained that Orlando Letelier, the country's former foreign minister - assassinated by Chilean agents a few months later in Washington, DC - had access to Congress. He said that Christian Democrats - the centrist party in Chile -had a strong voice in Washington. Kissinger assured him, 'I have not seen a Christian Democrat for years'. That must have pleased Pinochet, since Europeans had loudly condemned his secret police attack against exiled Chilean Christian Democrat congressman Bernardo Leighton in Rome. True to his word, Kissinger's address to the assembly that afternoon noted the reports of human rights abuses in Chile, but did not condemn the government. He said human rights concerns had 'impaired the relationship with Chile', but expressed the hope that 'obstacles raised by conditions alleged in the report will soon be removed'.

In an interview, Secretary Rogers said he thought those concerned about Chile had 'pushed Henry's envelope to the outer edge in terms of emphasizing human rights'. Foreign Minister Carvajal thought Kissinger's speech was 'balanced',
and was pleased that it referred to the exaggerations of the Chilean problem. Carvajal added that he took Kissinger's private remarks to Pinochet to mean that he didn't really believe his own public pronouncements.