I researched this extensively during my time at university using the declassified documents and came to the conclusion that while the United States desired the removal of Allende and actively worked against his administration, the United States was not directly responsible for the coup that saw Pinochet come to power. Now I say not directly because the CIA was very much responsible for creating the environment that led to the military coup. To explain this, I'll start from the beginning.

Salvador Allende first ran for the presidency in 1952, this first attempt was unsuccessful. He ran again in 1958. This attempt met with the same result but with one distinct difference, the United States had taken an interest in the Leftist candidate. Until 1958, the US had not seen Allende as a threat, now the threat of a communist Chile was a possibility. Salvador was gaining popularity and as a result the CIA was directed to begin spoiling operations to prevent Allende from being elected to office. These operations included the funding of the Chile's Christian Democratic Party or the PDC. Thanks largely to CIA support, which amounted to US$ 2.6 million, half of the party's official budget, the PDC was elected to office in the 1964 with Eduardo Frei as President. However, Allende maintained his presidential aspirations and ran for the presidency in 1970. Unlike his previous attempts and despite the efforts of the CIA to prevent it, Allende received the majority of votes and was elected to office on September 4. It is worth noting that the KGB was funding Allende's campaign at the time, contributing to the United States' paranoia that Chile had the potential to become another Cuba. Allende became the first 'socialist to be democratically elected to the position of president, setting a precedent the United States saw as unacceptable according to a transcript of a conversation that took place between Dr Henry Kissinger and Secretary of State William Rogers. Two months after Allende's election, Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor to the Nixon Administration, published a memorandum outlining the position the US should take towards Chile.

In Kissinger's own words, the memorandum “considered the question as to what strategy the US should adopt to deal with an Allende Government in Chile.” However, covert operations were already in place to prevent Allende from being voted in by Chile's congress. This came in the form of Track I, the plan by the state department to install Allende's political opponent Jorge Alessandri. A hand written note by CIA director Richard Helms records President Richard Nixon's orders to ensure this. Eleven days after being elected to power by the Chilean people, Nixon ordered the CIA to “save Chile!” and made ten million dollars available for the operation. Nixon also gave the infamous order to “make the economy scream,” something the CIA would achieve later in Allende's three-year term as president. The day after Nixon issued this order, Richard Helms held a planning meeting for what would become Project FUBELT, the CIA operation to unseat Allende through a military coup and part of the Track II plan. The minutes of this meeting detail the President's orders from the day before. The meeting set the groundwork for CIA operations against Allende including the possibility of a coup. In truth, the CIA had begun monitoring possible coups in Chile as early as 1968. This included both ill-fated Viaux Plots, one of which saw the Chilean constitutionalist army Commander-in-Chief General Rene Schneider shot and killed. Although the CIA was in contact with Viaux, a declassified Agency report states that the CIA had decided not to support the attempted coups as they had determined that such attempts would fail. However the same document states that the CIA would support a military coup if it had a chance of succeeding. All CIA operations to prevent Allende gaining office failed, the blame for which fell on Helms and the US Ambassador to Chile Edward Korry. However, the Track II plan continued in the guise of economic pressure.

Despite failing to prevent Allende's election to the presidency, The CIA nor the United States government stopped working against Allende. Henry Kissinger was the architect of the idea of an economic blockade of Chile. As Chile depended largely on the US dollar and US materials for its industries, The United States was able to cut loans, foreign aid, financing and materials, plunging Chile into an economic crisis. President Nixon's order to “make the economy scream” was becoming a reality. In August of 1972, a series of strikes began in Chile. At the head of these actions were the truck drivers. Chile had little in the way of a railway system so the vast majority of goods had to be moved by truck. The stop work action crippled the Chilean economy, stopping the delivery of food and sowing discontent amongst the population. According to a CIA intelligence bulletin, the Chilean Department of Investigation had received requests to investigate foreigners living in Chile who were manipulating the strikes. It has since been discovered that the CIA were manipulating the strikes as part of the Track II plan to cripple Chile's economy. The PDC was a strong supporter of the strikes and had been receiving funds from the CIA since Track I was put in place. These funds were passed onto the strikers, prolonging the strikes and bringing the Chilean economy to a halt. Striking truck drivers interviewed by Time Magazine admitted that money for food came from the CIA. As a result of the strike, Allende was forced to use the military to bring an end to the strikes, reopen roads and stores whose owners had joined the truckers. This hardline approach was not received well and Allende’s popularity fell as a result. It didn't help that the strikes had affected the planting of crops, causing a decrease of 16 percent in harvest forcing Chile to import more food, adding to the already mounting debt the country had. While the CIA continued to strangle the Chilean economy, the US military continued to provide arms and armament to the Chilean military.

Despite a promise from US Ambassador Korry to Allende's predecessor Eduardo Frei in 1970 that “not a nut or bolt would be allowed to reach Chile under Allende,” the US continued to provide assistance to the Chilean military in the form of hardware and training. This has been interpreted as encouragement for the Chilean military to intervene in the government. This interpretation is strengthened by the actions of the Nixon administration in March of 1970. The Chilean military presented a shopping list of weapons and vehicles to the US valued at seven million dollars. This list included recoilless rifles, helicopters, artillery pieces and C-130 Hercules aircraft. Kissinger advised Nixon to offer the requested items to the military on credit as a refusal to supply the weapons could “cause resentment in the Chilean armed forces and sever our tenuous relations with them while there is still a possibility they might act against Allende.” It is clear that the Nixon administration was planning to use the military against Allende. In direct violation of their own policy of strangling Chile's economy, the US increased assistance to the Chilean military from 3,221 million dollars in 1970 to 13,540 million dollars in 1972. Assistance from the US government to the Chilean military was not only in the form of money but in training as well. Joint naval manoeuvres were held annually with the United States Navy and the training of Chilean personnel in the Panama Canal Zone. Figures garnered from the Church report into the CIA's covert operations state that the number of Chilean personnel trained in Panama increased in each consecutive year of Allende's term. It is certain that the cooperation between the US and the Chilean military allowed the CIA to gather intelligence on possible coup plotting as well as approach Chilean officers about the possibility of organising a coup.

It had always been the desire of the Nixon administration to see Allende unseated by a coup since 1970. The US however was unwilling to carry out the coup themselves so set the groundwork for the Chilean military under General Augusto Pinochet to carry out the coup for them. In 1975, the US Senate began an inquiry into CIA operations in Chile to determine whether the US was responsible for the coup in Chile and the death of Salvador Allende. The inquiry was headed by Senator Frank Church and the findings of the committee were published in what was called the Church report. The report determined that the United States was not responsible for the 1973 coup. It is clear from a released transcript of a phone conversation between President Nixon and Henry Kissinger that the US did not have a hand in the actual September coup. However it is also made clear by Kissinger's admittance that the US set the groundwork for the coup to take place “We (the United States) didn't do it. I mean we helped them. (Omitted words) created the conditions as great as possible.” The conditions that Kissinger alluded to in this conversation were the results of the covert operations the CIA was involved in during Allende's three year term.

Continued below...