“Uncool and Incorrect” in Chile

The military coup that toppled Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973 led to one of the most repressive military dictatorships in Latin American history. Although the coup’s full origin remains one of the great mysteries of the Cold War, most assume that powers in Washington were largely to blame, given the long history of U.S. interventionism in Latin America. These assumptions were only strengthened by ongoing suspicions about the Nixon administration’s role in a failed campaign to prevent Allende’s inauguration in 1970.
Providing a comprehensive account of the Nixon administration’s efforts to undermine and unseat Allende, the book relies heavily on newly declassified records, addressing several crucial questions regarding U.S. involvement. The author explores several counterfactual scenarios to highlight important turning points and crucial decisions which contributed to the failure of Chilean democracy.

Stephen M. Streeter is an associate professor of history at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He specializes in the history of U.S. foreign relations and teaches courses on the history of the United States, Latin America, and the Vietnam War.

Stephen M. Streeter
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 320
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2023
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8883-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4828-6
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Abbreviations vii
Introduction 1
1. Origins of the Clash 7
2. The 1970 Presidential Election 23
3. The ­Face-Off 42
4. Nationalization 58
5. Making the Economy Scream: The “Invisible Blockade” 82
6. The Chilean Revolution 108
7. Destabilization 119
8. Creating a Coup Climate 146
9. Chile’s 9/11 169
Conclusion 189
Chapter Notes 203
Bibliography 273
Index 301

• “A valuable contribution to the scholarship on Salvador Allende, the 1973 Chilean Coup, and American foreign policy in the Nixon Era.”—Joseph F. Dmohowski, Serials & Electronic Resources Librarian, Whittier College

• “This new, painstakingly researched study of the Sept. 11, 1973 golpe in Chile focuses on the ‘total government apparatus’ approach, during the Nixon presidency, designed to destabilize and destroy the democratically elected President Salvador Allende. Some of us thought we knew all there was to know about this early 1970s catastrophe in Chile, but we were wrong.”—Michael J. LaRosa, associate professor of History, Rhodes College