Jack Devine Quotes

Nixon had ordered the CIA to destabilize the economy of Chile. See {615581}.

Leftist Salvador Allende, despite covert CIA efforts to make him lose, was elected President. The CIA was then planning a coup to remove him from power. The CIA agents in Chile had kept the Ambassador in the dark, but he found out and cabled Secretary of State Henry Kissinger this warning. To Korry’s great surprise and disappointment Kissinger was in on the coup plans and he ordered Korry to stay out of it. Traditionally, the Ambassador is in charge of all U.S. Government Activity in the country, but in cases of covert operations, the Ambassador might or might not be in the loop. The coup d’etat took place, Allende committed suicide, and General August became the dictator of Chile and implemented a reign of terror for anyone who disagreed with his policies or programs. See {634506}.

20th century Africa and South America were particularly good examples.

This quote is very interesting because it shows the Secretary of State complimenting the CIA for breaking Chilean law and interfering in the internal affairs of another nation.

Diem was a creature of the Central Intelligence Agency. An anti-Communist Christian in a Buddhist county, the CIA engineered his rise to power, created his political party, provided him with cash to bribe other Vietnamese politicians, and paid for all the propaganda so he would “win” the Presidential elections. However, he abused the Buddhists, was thoroughly corrupt and ran a corrupt administration, but worst of all from the American point of view, he was unable to motivate the South Vietnamese population to fight the Communists. He reached the point where he was more of a liability, and the Central Intelligence Agency engineered a coup d’etat to remove him from power and replace him with a President more to our liking. (See {634540}.) Though not planned that way, the South Vietnam military officers who we backed in the coup, then murdered Diem, who although ineffective and unsuccessful, he had been a friend and ally of the United States.

To depose President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam Conein was one of the first American intelligence operatives in Vietnam. Diem was a creature of the Central Intelligence Agency. An anti-Communist Christian in a Buddhist county, the CIA engineered his rise to power, created his political party, provided him with cash to bribe other Vietnamese politicians, and paid for all the propaganda so he would “win” the Presidential elections. However, he abused the Buddhists, was thoroughly corrupt and ran a corrupt administration, but worst of all from the American point of view, he was unable to motivate the South Vietnamese population to fight the Communists. He reached the point where he was more of a liability, and the CIA, through Conein, engineered a coup d’etat to remove him from power and replace him with a President more to our liking. Though not planned that way, the South Vietnam military officers who we backed in the coup, then murdered Diem, who although ineffective and unsuccessful, had been a friend and ally of the United States. Even President Kennedy felt badly about the outcome. See {634539}.

Dulles was a master at manipulating presidents. Instead of just presenting his Bay of Pigs plan to Kennedy and assuring him of his belief in its likely success, Dulles brought in the comparison with Eisenhower, a great general with extensive foreign policy experience. If Ike would give the go ahead with a lesser success probability plan, then it showed the confidence that Eisenhower had in Dulles and the Central Intelligence Agency staff. If Kennedy were to kill the Bay of Pigs plan, then either he did not have the courage that Ike had or he was substituting his military judgment for Eisenhower’s. Kennedy approved the operation which was a terrible example of military planning. Kennedy, after the Bay of Pigs Debacle, never again had great confidence in the professional military and espionage. Many political scientists and historians credit this negative experience with the Bay of Pigs with giving Kennedy the confidence to not follow the recommendations of the leading military and intelligence staff when faced with the Cuban Missile Crises—even when members of the Joint Chief’s of Staff (Curtis LeMay was the most forceful) told him unequivocally that his failure to act more forcefully would likely weaken if not destroy the independence of the country. President Kennedy and his brother, Bobby, took a much more proactive role in the Missile Crises than they did in the Bay of Pigs.

2 weeks before a military junta, with the knowledge of America, overthrew the popularly elected, left wing President, Salvador Allende (see {640618}). America was very supportive of the new military junta. However, whereas the coup itself was not very bloody as all the military forces were on one side. However, General Pinochet and the other coup leaders, under the guise of “cleanup operations” murdered thousands of supporters of the deposed President, including many academics and writers. The total number will never be known, but this CIA cable was the harbinger of things to come in the new Chilean regime where any dissident or critic of the government under the military could lead to arrest, torture and often murder or “disappearance”. Years later Pinochet and others were convicted for crimes against humanity. The American silence during this period has always been a very controversial moral and political policy. It was in the midst of the Cold War and the Chilean Junta was strongly anti-Communist. The Junta kept denying the accusations crimes against political opponents and claimed that the reports were communist inspired to discredit them. The CIA knew much of the truth and never shared it with all of the Congress or the public. It is not clear which politicians knew and remained silent and which never knew nor knew that the CIA knew much of the criminal activity.

There was a military coup in 1973 which was supported by the United States -- {640618} . Many Chilean left wingers were tortured, murdered or disappeared. Also, two American citizens in Chile were murdered at the time. This case finally brought the murderers of the Americans from the military junta to account. However, it turned out that the murders of the Americans was part of a conspiracy between the Chilean junta and United States military / intelligence officers in Santiago at the time. The American murder victims were fingered by an American Naval Captain, Ray E. Davis, as leftists and they too were killed. Captain Davis had been indicted with the two Chileans, but he died before the trial. The Chilean judge was not able to indicate how high up the decision by the American officers to have the Chileans kill leftist Americans went. One important historical aspect of this case was meaningful because when the trial was finally conducted, there was a major policy debate in the United States over the right of the American government to kill American citizens abroad and under what circumstances with most people thinking that this was a new policy issue brought about by the development of drone technology and the War on Terror. However, this judge’s release of the information showed that Americans had been previously killed before drones. One major difference is that in the War on Terror case the President, Attorney General and other officials were the major decision makers while in the 1973 case in Chile, it may have been limited to a few rabid, over-zealous, mid-level officers, acting on their own. Or perhaps the kill decision went further. The documents relating to the murders are highly classified and the government has not yet released them at the time of this quotation.