Product Description

The newly declassified documents that reveal the startling facts behind US collusion with the notorious Chilean dictator. The October 1998 arrest of General Augusto Pinochet in Great Britain, and the ongoing saga of efforts to prosecute him in Chile, have renewed world awareness of the horrible crimes against humanity committed during his regime. The Pinochet case has also raised many questions about the US role in bringing him to power and supporting his notorious dictatorship. For decades, the CIA, the Pentagon, and other intelligence agencies have guarded state secrets concerning this shameful era. Now, thanks to the efforts of the National Security Archive, hundreds of US government records that reveal this important and shocking story have been declassified. The Pinochet File reproduces many of the key and formerly secret records of atrocity and complicity that are at the heart of the international campaign to hold this Chilean general legally accountable for murder, torture, and terrorism. Peter Kornbluh's sharp, investigative narrative puts the documents in precise historical context, exposing the CIA's continuing efforts to cover up this history, and filling in the gaps created by documents that the agency continues to withhold. The Pinochet Filecontains the most comprehensive chronology ever published on US involvement in Chile and the pursuit of justice against General Pinochet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #912850 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

From Publishers Weekly
For years, the United States government maintained top-secret archives detailing its policy in Chile and its role in aiding and securing General Pinochet's rise to dictatorial power in the early 1970s. In this examination of the thousands of records recently declassified by the CIA, White House, NSC, Pentagon and FBI, Kornbluh offers new revelations about America's development of a policy dedicated to overthrowing Chile's existing democratic government and to replacing it with a military leader reviled for his complete disregard for human rights. Throughout the book, Kornbluh-a director of the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research library-buttresses his assertions with excerpts from the relevant documents, and attempts to shed light on some of the outstanding questions of the period that still beg for answers, including what motivated President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to authorize the bloody campaign and how involved the US government actually was in the September 1973 coup itself.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.