Nixon

The Nixon Adminstration and Relations with Latin America

As Nixon was being elected into office in 1969, Chile, Salvador Allende came into office as the President of Chile. Nixon opposed Allende and authorized the CIA to prevent him from taking office by any means necessary.

At first,the Nixon administration took a “low-profile” stance on what he called the “Chlilean experiment” with democratic socialism. This “low-profile” stance was quickly forgotten when the Nixon Administration announced a tough stand on foreign aid, credits, and expropriations. These threats were not specifically aimed at Chile, but to the whole of Latin America.

Eventually these threats and other covert acts turned into a brutal and bloody coup. The United States denies having any part of the coup, but many still suspect this “hard line” policy Nixon enacted had a great deal to do with the coup. Many Americans and Latin Americans protested the “economic warfare” that they felt was being applied to the Chilean government. It has been concluded by some that this economic warfare was strongly tied to the interest of overseas investors, but denies that the policy was an “invisible blockade” and was meant to contribute any way to the overthrow of Allende (Fansworth, More than Admitted).

Allende's government also posed no strategic threats to the United States. In 1970, a high-level interdepartmental group concluded that the United States had no vital interests in Chile, and that Allende posed no likely threat to the peace of the region. Allende pursued a policy of nonalignment, entering into relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union, and demonstrating independence from the United States.

According to Henry Kissinger,""There is a good chance that [Allende] will establish over a period of years some sort of Communist government," that could pose "massive problems for us and for democratic forces and for pro-US forces in Latin America."

According to Petras and LaPorte (Can we do Business with Radical Nationalists?), U.S. policy was extremely unfavorable towards Allende, but a another issue was Chile’s decision to nationalize U.S. properties in Chile. This was extremely unpopular with U.S. business interest groups, but Petras and LaPorte insist that this was not done out of anger or spite but instead grew out of an ever growing trend among Latin America to have more control over their own resources.

This need for Chile to exert their power and take control of their own resources was just an example of what was happening all over Latin America.
In 1968, Peruvians nationalized the International Petroleum Corporation.
The Ecuadorian government seized U.S. fishing boats that were outside the 200 mile limit in an effort to control their maritime resources.
In 1969, the Bolivian government nationalized the Gulf Corporation assets and a number of different U.S. owned mining operations ( LaPorte & Petras, Can we do business with Radical Nationalists?).
Many other Latin American countries developed limits to foreign investment and many signed trade and friendship agreements with other Latin American countries.