On the Web United Nations U.S. State Dept. NATO World Health Org. Unless President Clinton ensures that the record is brought to light, a singular opportunity to find answers to unresolved cases of atrocities against Chileans and Americans, and to fully understand the role U.S. government played in this Cold War tragedy, will be lost. What began as a precedent-setting exercise in official openness, however, has devolved into an example of government censors holding history hostage. The result, so far, is a public record skewed by omission, open to charges of fraud and a coverup.
Chile holds a special place in the annals of American foreign policy.
News reports revealed that the CIA had conducted massive clandestine operations to undermine the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende and help bring the military to power in 1973. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's embrace of the Pinochet regime, despite its ongoing atrocities, prompted Congress to pass the very first laws establishing human rights as a criterion for U.S. policy abroad. The CIA's covert operations and the debate over U.S. policy toward Pinochet generated a slew of secret documents. So, too, did the 1973 murder in Chile of two U.S. citizens, freelance writers Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, as well as the brazen 1976 car bombing in Washington that killed former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his American associate, Ronni Karpen Moffitt. The Clinton administration's special review carried the promise of finally declassifying these records and answering the outstanding questions that haunt this shameful era.