Hostile Intent: U.S. Covert Operations in Chile, 1964-1974 | 
 enlarge | Author: Kristian Gustafson
Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 724908
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 1597970972
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.127308309046
EAN: 9781597970976
ASIN: 1597970972
Publication Date: December 4, 2007
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Product Description
Kristian Gustafson's Hostile Intent reexamines one of the most controversial chapters in U.S. intelligence history, the Central Intelligence Agency's covert operations in Chile from 1964 to 1974. At the request of successive U.S. presidents, the CIA in conjunction with the State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency first acted to prevent Chilean socialist Salvador Allende from becoming the democratically elected president of his country and then tried to undermine his government once he was in office. Allende's government eventually fell in a bloody military coup on September 11, 1973. President Richard Nixon's administration and corporate interests were not sorry to see him go, but did U.S. covert operations actually play a decisive role in Allende's downfall? The declassification of thousands of U.S. government documents over the last several years demands that historians take a new look. Since 1973, most observers have maintained that U.S. machinations were responsible for the success of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's coup that forced Allende's fall and suicide. This assessment has been based on a thin documentary record of U.S. activity, the myth of an all-powerful CIA, and the CIA's checkered history of covert action in Latin America. However, Gustafson convincingly shows the conventional wisdom about the impact of U.S. actions is badly flawed. His meticulous research is based upon an intensive examination of previously unavailable U.S. records as well as interviews with key figures. Hostile Intent is the most comprehensive account to date of U.S. involvement in Chile, and its provocative reinterpretation of this involvement will shape all future debates.
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| Customer Reviews:
Hostile Intent is a hard core history book! June 2, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Gustafson's study of CIA covert operation in Chile from 1964 to 1974 sets the standard for those studying the events leading up to Pinochet's seizure of power, as well as those with an interest in Intelligence operations in general. Gustafson has combed recently declassified US Government documents. He also conducted extensive interviews with CIA agents, and other Americans and Chileans who struggled to react to Chile's extremely volatile political landscape in the decade leading up to Pinochet's military coup in 1973. This is a hard core history book and not a light read. It slowly builds momentum as the events in Chile build momentum. It is well-researched and documented and will likely be recognized as the keystone reference for those studying this subject for decades to come.
Gustafson busts open myths about CIA omnipotentance or that they could have orchestrated the 1973 military coup. He identifies that the US Government's strategy to retain Chile as an American ally was poorly articulated and mostly reactive throughout the 1960's and early 1970's. He also identifies that the lack of a strategy encouraged bureaucratic infighting between the CIA, State Department, and White House, as well as made it extremely difficult for covert operations to be effective as they weren't effectively tied to a larger plan. Gustafson effectively argues that covert action must be in support of formal foreign policy, and that covert action is usually high risk and often does more damage than good in terms of achieving foreign policy objectives.
In addition, Gustafson reviews the evolution of covert operations in Chile and details how the haphazard policy approach, coupled with a lack of consistent long-term resources, made it extremely difficult for the CIA agents on the ground to build effective networks and achieve tactical effects. Developing contacts and the cultural and political awareness to gather accurate intelligence, let alone conduct covert action, was an enormous challenge. More often than not, local contacts used the CIA to their advantage more than it used them..
Most importantly, Gustafson builds a rock-solid case that while the Americans, Cubans, and Soviets all dabbled in influencing Chilean politics, ultimately the 1973 coup was a Chilean-driven tragedy. Extremism on the right and the left increasingly poisoned Chilean politics in the 1960's, and the 1973 coup was a product of that extremism, as well as Allende's political and economic incompetence. Gustafson makes it clear that the CIA had difficulty knowing what was going on in Chile, let alone effectively influencing it.
In addition to those interested in Chilean history, Hostile Intent should be read by those looking for a good case study on the use of covert action by the US Government. The lessons-learned Gustafson identifies are particularly relevant given ongoing US covert action in support of the Global War on Terror.
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