Nixon and Triangulation

President Richard Nixon shakes the hand of PRC leader Mao Zedong during Nixon's 1972 China trip.

Augusto Pinochet and the other generals who participated in the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government, a week after the coup, which took place on September 11, 1973.
The release and transcription of Nixon tapes from 1971-1973, scheduled for the next decade, will no doubt alter the picture once again of this most unusual President. The documents for today's reading focus on the administration's involvement in the coup that toppled the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende.

READING:

bullet Patterson, Major Problems, detente chapter.
bullet Nixon transcripts (please print out and bring to class)

DOCUMENTS:

bullet Chilean coup: Henry Kissinger, National Security Action memorandum 93
bullet NSC options paper: Chile 1970
bullet CIA coup plotting: 1970
bullet Henry Kissinger on a Chilean coup: Chilean general Roberto Viaux, 1970