Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Why Allende was unique

Salvador Allende made his mark on Chilean history, even though he was the nation's president for a short three years.  Now that Pinochet's dictatorship is safely in the past, his supporters have revealed even more about his popularity and lasting legacy.

Even though Allende was a socialist and admired world leaders like Castro, Mao, and Ho Chi Minh, his rise to power was very different.  Allende's major accomplishment was that he was able to implement socialism through a democratic election, NOT a violent revolution.

Why then, if Allende achieved the presidency legitimately, did the US still want to overthrow him?  How might the US have felt about Allende compared to some of the previous Chilean presidents like Ibanez or Frei?

11 comments:

  1. Although Allende was was elected into office the US still continued to distrust him and wanted to over throw him for his political views. He admired communists that the Americans were currently fighting in the cold war. During Allende's time as president a civil war was also close to becoming a reality within Cuba and the US most likely did not want more wars to ally or participate in.

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  2. Big source of worry for the US was the fact that Allende "actively" appreciated communists and their decision, DURING the cold war. This unexpectedly caused some tension between Chile and the US despite the legitimate election of Allende.

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  3. Of course the US likes the progress of the Chileans because they used a democracy. However, it is very problematic because Allende was an open Marxist sympathizer. With the continued cold war anticommunist mentality, the US would want to overthrow him. Also, his way of running the economy was not favorable. He implemented many "naive" things such as price fixings while still raising salaries. This jut lead to more and more shortages. Therefore with a combined political and economic disaster, the US definitely wanted to overthrow him.

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  4. The US was still in the Cold War mentality stage, and still is today, which means total fear of Marxism. Though the democratic election to get Allende in office was a practice that US approved of, as Nicki said, the US does not tolerate communists. Many Marxists have such grand goals for their people, that their ways of adjusting the economy are often unreasonable, and not rooted in actual successful models. Things like raising wages while setting prices for goods was a prime example of this testament. Because of the active Marxist spirit in Allende, the US wanted him gone.

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  5. When the elections came up in Chile in the 70's the US was in the middle of Cold War and the Red Scare. Communist regimes were suddenly sprouting everywhere. The US panicked and set its priorities: stopping the spread of communism at all cost. With Allende, this wasn't easy at first, because he was obviously elected. But when he started to loose support because his economical programs didn't work, it was easy for the US to make enough mischief for the coup to develop by itself.

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  6. The United States was at the time still hung-up on this whole communism thing. They feared it and to stay true to this belief and the promise to the American people that they would end communism and fight it, they had to overthrow Allende. While he pushed these socialist ideas into action through democratic process, this only angered the US more. He proved that socialist policies can be a part of a democracy, and the US obviously don't take well to this.

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  7. The essential reason for the United States wanting to overthrow his power essentially was because of the fact that he admired the other politically leaders who just so happen to practice communism like Castro, Mao, and Ho Chi Minh. And during the Cold War, a fight against communism, we couldn't take any chances with who is and isn't communist. And if we were to let him go with out doing anything, what happens if he really is communist? The safest route for the United States to take is to try to overthrow him.

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  8. The US wanted to overthrow Allende because of his reforms; they were weak and he favored Marxism.Of course the US feared Communism and its threat of spreading. As Nicki stated, the he caused a political and economic strain on Chile. In addition, he lost many supporters. Jack brought up a good point- his reforms seemed fine, but he was not effective or smart about how to apply them.

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  9. Compare to harsh communisium repressing Ibanez, the rightest who focused on conflicts as an attack on democracy that had to be defended by upholding principles such as private property and anti-communist "Western" values, and Feri, who is more neutral and decidedly pro-us by avoiding direct confrontation with US hemispheric hegemony, Salvador Allende was quite boldy compare to these two, "Allende and his vp wanted to institute DEEP changes in social, political and economic system of the country and build socialism in Chile.", Allende use means like replacement of capitalism by more state-owned enterprises in mining and other industries, banks, insurance and foreign commerce, moreover, Allende administration's UP policy was anting but united and some advocated immediate revolution which explains the phenomenon that some upper and medial classes opted for leaving the country immediately, closing factories and firing employees. Also, Allende was warmly received by Soviet Union during his visit and invited Fidel Castro to Chile.

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  10. The main reason Allende was overthrown is of course, his marxist sympathy. He even visited the Soviet Union and was "warmly received" there. There was such a lack of coordination with the UP which impacted agrarian reform policies negatively. Allende's foreign policies literally included reaching out to the Soviet bloc...during the tense period of the Cold War...

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  11. The US tended to condemn anything that had Communist links, and this included Allende because of his sympathy towards Marxism. This is also the reason why he was overthrown. There was increased tension between the US and Chile as time progressed.

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