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# Westem HemisphereENCOUNTER, LondonJanuary 1974# Allende## & the Myth Makers### Political Realisım & Revolutionary RomanceUTILING AS IT MAY SEEM to say so when the bloodshed of the Chilean coup d'état is still so koonly remembered and the generals who made it are riding unpleasantly high, the fact remains that Salvador Allende died a lucky man. In life he was a failure. Both his policies and his country were shattered long before the end. But in death he achieved success beyond his dreams. Instantly canonised as the Western world's newest left-wing martyr, he became overnight the most potent political cult-figure since his old friend, Che Guevara,To some extant, of course, the congregation had already been prepared for this posthumous elevation. In Che three years of Allende's administration the "Chilean experiment" and the "Chilean road to socialism" had become favourite topics of discussion among left-wing groups in Europe, where Chile's supposed resemblance to Italy or France had encouraged the belief that Europe might, for once, foliow in Latin America's footsteps instead of the other way about. Many aspiring revolutionaries from Europe and the United States had actually joined their Latin American counterparts in Chile in much the same spirit as their dropped- out contemporaries had hitch-hiked to Nepal hoping for a glimpse of Paradise in action. By the time of the September coup the military junta claimed there were as many as 15,000 foreigners of all kinds in Chile, actively supporting-some- times with violence-the "socialist revolution,"DAVID HOLDIM has travelled in Chile on several recent assignomerus as Chief Foreign Correspondent for the "Sunday Times." Among his regular contributions to ENCOUNTER are "South African Notebook" (August 1970). "Day Trip to Zarztbar" (September 1972) and "Ethiopia- Forty Years On" (February 1973).These specially interested groups or individuals obviously provided a ready network for international propaganda in the aftermath of Allende's death. But the shocked and, at times, almost hysterical reaction to the coup went far beyond such committed parties to embrace many of the West's ordinary liberals and social democrats. For them, as much as for the scif- styled revolutionaries, it seemed, a bright light of world-wide hope had been extinguished in Santiago; and from Washington to Rome, via Paris, Boon and London, anguished cries of Foul!" reat the air.THE OUTCRY IN BRITAIN Was typical-and instantanenneRevolt Against the Ballot Box" for which the Chilean armed forces could offer no excuse (*The Guardian, 12'9,73*); as a "Disaster in Chile" that would "set back the cause of social- iwn and democracy everywhere" (*New States тол, 14/9/73*); and as "The Death of a Hope" comparable, even, to the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia that ended Alexander Dubock's régime in 1968 (*The Observer, 16/9/73*).Within 24 hours of the first, bare news of the coup the General-Secretary of the British Labour Party, Mr Ron Hayward, was writing officially to one of Allende's former colleagues to say that it was difficult to express the sense of horror and anger felt by the British Labour movement "as the aspirations of the working people of Chile- shared by so many others around the world are destroyed at the hands of a few arrogant and ignorant officers acting at the behest of those who believe their right to rule is unchallengeablo". (*The Times, 13/9/73*). Mr Len Murray, General- Secretary of the Trades Union Council, expressed his shock and abhorrence with equal speed and vigour. And Mrs Judith Hart, speaking a a member of the Labour Party's National Executive, unleashed a torrent of assertions so passionates as to suggest that her mind had come close to being overthrown with Allende's government. They ranged from the declaration that "the democratic will of the people of Chile" had been defeated by capitalist "collusion" (*The Guardian, 17/9/73*) to "for Socialists of this generation Chile is our Spain" and "This is the most vicious fascism we have seen in generations" (*The Guardian, 19/9/73*).When the Labour Party Conference met at Blackpool three weeks later these instant re- actions had hardened into established orthodoxy. The former Chilean Ambassador in London was given a standing ovation when he became the first non-delegate to address a Party Conference since two Spanish Republicans were allowed to do so in the 1930s. Resolutions were then carried utterly condemning the military coup and the precipitate action of the British Government in recognising the military junta; demanding the recall of the British Ambassador from Santiago and the withholding from the military régime of all aid, loans, and credits; and calling on the Labour Movement to campaign for the restora- tion of democracy in Chile and to offer financial and other assistance to the Popular Unity (Allende's) morenent (*The Tunes, 5/10/73*). My Italica,S AN ILLUSTRATION of the