Links
Nixon and Kissinger joked over Chile assassination
President Richard M. Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, joked that an "incompetent" CIA had struggled to successfully carry out an assassination in Chile, newly available Oval Office tapes reveal.
At the time, in 1971, Nixon and Kissinger were working to undermine the socialist administration of Chilean President Salvador Allende, who would die during a U.S.-backed military coup two years later.
One of the key figures to stand in the way of Chilean generals plotting to overthrow Allende was the Chilean army commander-in-chief, Rene Schneider, who was killed during a botched kidnapping attempt by military right-wingers in 1970.
The question of the CIA's role in Schneider's death has been hotly debated for decades.
The new tapes won't end the argument, but they add persuasive evidence that the CIA was at least trying to eliminate Schneider, and perhaps with the connivance of Nixon and Kissinger.