FREE ESSAY ON IS THE US RESPONSIBLE?

IS THE US RESPONSIBLE?

Was The United States Responsible?
It has long been said that the United States was responsible for bringing down
Salvador Allende's government in Chile but this paper will argue that the Allende
government was brought down by its own doing. It is true that Salvador Allende
was elected in 1970 by means of a democratic election, although only with 36.6%
of the vote. Nevertheless, it is equally true that his government lost its democratic
character by having repeatedly violated the Constitution.
In effect, President Allende became a tyrant when he broke his solemn oath to
respect the Constitution and the Chilean laws. This was not just obvious to the
great majority of Chileans in their daily lives, but was also established by almost
two thirds of the House of Deputies (the Lower House of the Chilean Congress) in
its momentous Agreement of 23 August 1973 (there was also a statement to the
same effect from the Supreme Court).
In this Agreement, is presented a list of the legal and constitutional violations
of President Allende's government and it decided to "make representations" of this
"grave breach of the legal and constitutional order of the Republic" to, among other
authorities, "the Armed Forces". At the same time it decides to "make
representations to those that, by virtue of their function, of their oath to remain
faithful to the Constitution and the law, ... it is up to them to put immediate end to
all the situations referred to above, which infringe the Constitution and the law."
Since no feasible mechanism existed in the Chilean Constitution to remove a
President who had lost his democratic nature, the House of Deputies, with the
support of all the representatives of the Christian Democratic Party, "made
representations" to the Armed Forces whom it was up to "to put immediate end" to
this grave situation. This was, in fact, an inequivocal call to remove President
Allende.
The Armed Forces, led by the person who was then the Commander in Chief of
the Army, General Augusto Pinochet, complied with the Agreement of the House
of Deputies eighteen days later, on September 11, 1973. Therefore the origin of
that government is that of any revolutionary one, in which only the use of force was
left in order to remove a tyrant. 
When a President elected by a third of the population is removed, and especially
if his government has caused the creation of armed militias, it is inevitable that a
civil war should ensue. In some countries conflicts of this nature have produced
hundreds of thousands of victims. For example, the Spanish Civil War caused one
million deaths. Even the U.S. Civil War, also the product of a Constitution which
was not clear concerning the right for a state to seceed from the Union , resulted in
650,000 deaths.
While it is important to grieve for each one of the victims, Chileans and
foreigners, who fell in Chile, and condemning each one of the abuses which both
sides committed in the civil war which lasted for years, it is also important to point
out that the Chilean revolution produced a minimal number of deaths when
compared to any historic standard. Even the Report of the Commission which
President Aylwin's government, antagonistic to President Pinochet's, set up (the
so-called "Rettig Report"), concluded that in the 17 year period around 2,000
people died.
In addition to the successful economic transformation carried out by his
government, the momentous achievement which meant avoiding a war with
Argentina, and the voluntary transition to a democratic government, the historical
truth demands recognition that President Pinochet led a legitimate rebellion against
tyranny and that during his government the price was a minimal cost in human
lives, the majority the result of the quasi civil war.