In recent years we think of September 11th as being strictly associated with 2001, Al Qaeda, bin Laden and George Bush Jr. But, not more than a few decades before one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Cold War manifested itself in South America.
The BBC does another good job of presenting a hard look, and staying mostly objective, in examining the absolute dirtiest war any two nations have ever fought on the face of this Earth. I speak of course of the United States and the Soviet Union. When we think of the barbarity of past ages where empires like Rome engaged in civil war, and did so by butchering the opposition in the streets, we think of our civilization as being above that. And yet as I write this the Ukraine, with a cease fire, is still in dispute between Russia and Ukrainians, we saw a mass genocide in Rwanda, we are seeing the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian military as it fights to retain national integrity against rebel factions.
So, we've taken several steps forward in tech and medicine, but ultimately we still have to deal with ourselves. And so it was in Chile all those years ago. This documentary interviews the participants on both sides. It examines the repercussions of the coup, how it was initiated, and how ultimately Pinochet came to power. And, interestingly enough, it actually does clarify a murder conspiracy of former Chilean president Allende through testimony of his own personal doctor. Incredible.
The documentary takes a blow by blow look at the events, and where it does frame the context of the coup, and it does give the militaries motivations of the coup, for some reason the role of the United States is kept out of the documentary. I'm not sure why. Either we, that is my government didn't have much of a role as everyone thinks we did (and therefore any role the US had was not interesting), or we didn't have any role in the coup in the first place, of which I am skeptical.
The documentary does try to end on an upbeat note, but to do so I think misses the point of the coup's planning and initiation. We, the United States, were locked in a mortal struggle against the Soviet Union and their spreading of communism around the world. Like Korea, Iran, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Syria, India, Afghanistan and other nations, Chile became another theatre of operations to oppose a central government run economy and society.
And here's the interesting thing, where Allende won the election, and disseminated private wealth through nationalization, even though he was democratically elected, he did, in point and fact, exercise power to restructure the government to a point where it could nationalize and otherwise take away private property as well as rights; from both individuals and corporations alike. The documentary looks at that, and looks at the huge rift that had been created through Allende's edicts, but I think it fails to examine the common man and soldier, and instead focuses on the participants of the coup.
Another failing of the documentary is to question both sides of the equation; i.e. to ask Allende's associates if they thought it was right for the government to take away rights and property through proxy of the government creating such social unrest. Likewise, the documentary does not ask the military and other supporters of the coup if it was right to take action against a democratically elected government. I make this criticism because, as I say, the documentary ends on an "upbeat" note showing the targets of the coup as reintroducing "democracy" to Chile. But on wonders if anyone in the exercise learned a lesson from this.
It's an interesting film, and it was good to hear from the participants. If you need a slice of Cold War history on your TV or computer, check this film out.
The BBC does another good job of presenting a hard look, and staying mostly objective, in examining the absolute dirtiest war any two nations have ever fought on the face of this Earth. I speak of course of the United States and the Soviet Union. When we think of the barbarity of past ages where empires like Rome engaged in civil war, and did so by butchering the opposition in the streets, we think of our civilization as being above that. And yet as I write this the Ukraine, with a cease fire, is still in dispute between Russia and Ukrainians, we saw a mass genocide in Rwanda, we are seeing the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian military as it fights to retain national integrity against rebel factions.
So, we've taken several steps forward in tech and medicine, but ultimately we still have to deal with ourselves. And so it was in Chile all those years ago. This documentary interviews the participants on both sides. It examines the repercussions of the coup, how it was initiated, and how ultimately Pinochet came to power. And, interestingly enough, it actually does clarify a murder conspiracy of former Chilean president Allende through testimony of his own personal doctor. Incredible.
The documentary takes a blow by blow look at the events, and where it does frame the context of the coup, and it does give the militaries motivations of the coup, for some reason the role of the United States is kept out of the documentary. I'm not sure why. Either we, that is my government didn't have much of a role as everyone thinks we did (and therefore any role the US had was not interesting), or we didn't have any role in the coup in the first place, of which I am skeptical.
The documentary does try to end on an upbeat note, but to do so I think misses the point of the coup's planning and initiation. We, the United States, were locked in a mortal struggle against the Soviet Union and their spreading of communism around the world. Like Korea, Iran, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Syria, India, Afghanistan and other nations, Chile became another theatre of operations to oppose a central government run economy and society.
And here's the interesting thing, where Allende won the election, and disseminated private wealth through nationalization, even though he was democratically elected, he did, in point and fact, exercise power to restructure the government to a point where it could nationalize and otherwise take away private property as well as rights; from both individuals and corporations alike. The documentary looks at that, and looks at the huge rift that had been created through Allende's edicts, but I think it fails to examine the common man and soldier, and instead focuses on the participants of the coup.
Another failing of the documentary is to question both sides of the equation; i.e. to ask Allende's associates if they thought it was right for the government to take away rights and property through proxy of the government creating such social unrest. Likewise, the documentary does not ask the military and other supporters of the coup if it was right to take action against a democratically elected government. I make this criticism because, as I say, the documentary ends on an "upbeat" note showing the targets of the coup as reintroducing "democracy" to Chile. But on wonders if anyone in the exercise learned a lesson from this.
It's an interesting film, and it was good to hear from the participants. If you need a slice of Cold War history on your TV or computer, check this film out.
