Book Description

This book provides a detailed analysis of the bureaucratic politics of US foreign policymaking with respect to Chile during the 1970s. On the basis of original interviews with key officials from the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations, congressional staffers, human rights activists, and Chilean opposition figures during the Pinochet dictatorship, together with extensive archival research (in the US, Canada and the UK), it recreates the internal debates in Washington over appropriate policy approaches and traces how faithfully these approaches were implemented down to the level of desk officer in the US embassy in Santiago. Assessing what impact US influence had on developments inside Chile is also an important part of this study. The findings make for vital reading for students and researchers of US foreign policy making, diplomatic history, and US-Chilean relations, although the book will also appeal to the general reader with an interest in the same issues.