The evolution of US foreign policy and the breakdown of democracy in Chile, 1958-1973

This dissertation investigates the evolving US foreign policy and how it relates to the role played by the United States (US) in Chile’s breakdown of democracy in 1973. This paper uses primary resources in the form of declassified documents and official US Government policy publications, as well as secondary resources from scholars in this field of study. This is in order to fully encapsulate the debate over how pivotal the US were in Chile’s breakdown of democracy. The findings of this paper are conclusive. The US wilfully undermined democracy in the name of national interest and an exaggeration of containment policy. Drawing on Chile’s position in a Cold War context, this paper demonstrates how a combination of CIA-led operations and an economic vice on Chile throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s created conditions that amounted to a ‘coup climate’. Those operations included the funding of political parties, the bribing of congressmen, and the assassination of Chile’s commander-in-chief of the military. This study revealed how the US escalated its invasiveness in Chile as time went on, reaching a peak under Nixon and Kissinger. This paper also reasons that the US Government did everything other than directly participate in the coup.