Make the Economy Scream: Chile, 1970–1973

(00:00:00) Make the Economy Scream: Chile, 1970–1973
(00:00:37) Track One and Track Two
(00:02:45) The Architecture of Destabilization
(00:05:01) The Generals Move
(00:06:49) What Followed
(00:08:02) Congress Responds
(00:09:27) The Pattern and What It Means
(00:11:11) The Record

Salvador Allende won Chile's presidential election in September 1970. He didn't seize power — he won it democratically. Within days, Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to ensure his government would fail.

This episode traces the full arc of one of the Cold War's most documented and disturbing covert operations. It begins with Nixon's instruction — recorded in Helms's own notes — that Chile must not be allowed to go communist, and the two simultaneous CIA programmes that followed. Track One tried to manipulate Chile's congress into blocking Allende's ratification. Track Two went directly to the Chilean military and ended with the assassination of General René Schneider, the army commander who refused to move against an elected president.

When both tracks failed to prevent Allende from taking office, Washington shifted strategy. The goal became making his government look incompetent. Nixon's phrase — 'make the economy scream' — became operational policy. Eight million declassified CIA dollars funded opposition newspapers including El Mercurio, opposition political parties, and a propaganda campaign designed to accelerate economic collapse. International credit was blocked. The World Bank was pressured. Truckers were funded to strike and paralyse the country.

Allende held on longer than Washington expected. But by September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet was ready to move. On the 11th, Chilean air force jets bombed La Moneda. Allende died inside the palace. The junta that followed would go on to torture and disappear thousands.

This episode asks the question the operation raises and never cleanly answers: what exactly does the CIA owe to democracy?

This episode includes AI-generated content.