The Overthrow of Allende Paul E. Sigmund, autho

Dr. Sigmund scrutinizes every aspect of Chilean government, society, politics, economics, and international relations. He carefully examines the role of the military and the voting behavior of different groups in the elections leading up to the coup. In the last section of the book he discusses Pinochet's government, including an analysis of this entire Chilean experience with implications for other nations.

The point of view is that of a historian, political scientist and scholar. Sigmund is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. He has authored several books on Latin America, political theory, and developing nations. Sigmund calls himself a Chile watcher. He began this book before the Allende coup, while teaching in Santiago under the auspices of the Rockefeller foundation. He had no preestablished thesis in mind, but the tragic overthrow of Allende in 1973 led him to shift the emphasis of his work to a more direct analysis of the distant and proximate causes of the coup. His original training was in political philosophy. This work, essentially narrative, do

. . .
ere was tension between Frei and the Senate, culminating in a humiliating refusal of the Senate in granting the president permission to visit Washington in response to an invitation by President Johnson (p. 57). Economic problems were reflected in wage readjustment difficulties, continued inflation, strikes, and imbalance between government income and expenditure. Unrest became so great that buildings were bombed and the military became involved. President Frei appointed a military man, General Tulio Marambio, as minister of defense. Violence increased in every sector, including the assassination of public officials. These militant Activities accelerated the political polarization under the Allende regime (pp. 69-71). Allende was elected in 1970,-with a close-margin victory. He came into office with the same political and economic constraints as Frei, but he refused to acknowledge them. He believed that socialism would solve Chile's problems but did not find the transition to be easy. It seemed that he attempted to preserve the populist nationalist legalism as well as his Marxist-inspired class polarization. The violent confrontation of the clashing ideologies brought tragic consequences to himself and to Chile (p. 127
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Dr Sigmund, Santiago Valparaiso, Allende Allende, Tulio Marambio, Latin America, Araya Peters, Frei Allende, Politics Chile, President Johnson, Christian Democrats, overthrow allende, dr sigmund, allende politics chile, politics chile, chile 1964-1976, frei government, allende regime, political economic, truckers' strike, percent population, overthrow allende politics, politics chile 1964-1976, allende politics,
Approximate Word count = 1249
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)