Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 16. August 2009 / Timeline August 16, 2009
Version 3.515. August 2009, 17. August 2009
08/16/2009
National Security Archive Update, August 16, 2009
Brazil Conspired with U.S. to Overthrow Allende
Declassified U.S. Documents Show Richard Nixon and Brazilian
President Emilio Medici Discussed Coordinated Intervention in
Chile, Cuba, and other Latin American nations "to prevent new
Allendes and Castros"
Secret Back Channel established between Presidents
Brazilian General Accused U.S. of Asking Brazil to "do its dirty
work" Washington, DC, August 16, 2009 - In December 1971, President
Richard Nixon and Brazilian President Emilio Garrastazu Medici
discussed Brazil's role in efforts to overthrow the elected
government of Salvador Allende in Chile, formerly Top Secret
records posted by the National Security Archive today reveal.
According to a declassified memorandum of conversation, Nixon asked
Medici whether the Chilean military was capable of overthrowing
Allende. "He felt that they were," Medici replied, "and made clear
that Brazil was working toward this end."
According to the Top Secret "memcon" of the December 9, 1971, Oval
Office meeting, Nixon offered his approval and support for Brazil's
intervention in Chile. "The President said that it was very
important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this
field. We could not take direction but if the Brazilians felt that
there was something we could do to be helpful in this area, he
would like President Medici to let him know. If money were required
or other discreet aid, we might be able to make it available,"
Nixon stated. "This should be held in the greatest confidence."
The U.S. and Brazil, Nixon told Medici, "must try and prevent new
Allendes and Castros and try where possible to reverse these
trends."
During the same meeting, President Medici asked Nixon if "we"
should be supporting Cuban exiles who "had forces and could
overthrow Castro's regime." Nixon responded that "we should, as
long as we did not push them into doing something that we could not
support, and as long as our hand did not appear."
The documents were declassified in July as part of the State
Department's Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)
series.
The memcon records Nixon telling Medici that he "hoped we could
cooperate closely, as there were many things that Brazil as a South
American country could do that the U.S. could not." Indeed, the
documentation reveals that Nixon believed that a special
relationship with Brazil was so important that he proposed a secret
back-channel between the two presidents "as a means of
communicating directly outside of normal diplomatic channels."
Médici named his private advisor and foreign minister Gibson
Barbosa as his back-channel representative, but told Nixon that for
"extremely private and delicate matters" Brazil would use Col.
Manso Netto. Nixon named Kissinger as his representative for the
special back channel.
Communications between Nixon and Medici using the special
back-channel remain secret.
Peter Kornbluh, who directs the National Security Archive's Chile
and Brazil projects, noted that "a hidden chapter of collaborative
intervention to overthrow the government of Chile" was now emerging
from the declassified documentation. "Brazil's archives are the
missing link," he said, calling on President Ignacio Lula da Silva
to open Brazil's military records on the past. "The full history of
intervention in South America in the 1970s cannot be told without
access to Brazilian documents."
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