ITT and Allende

It will be recalled that seven weeks passed between Allende’s narrow plurality victory in the popular election, which threw the decision into the Congress, and his final confirmation by the Congress. Anderson charged that, in the interim, ITT offered the State Department over $1 million to stop Allende, without specifying how: So much, on the evidence of the memos Anderson secured and circulated, is clear enough. Anderson himself was vague about the details, although he was- clear enough about the moral of the story. Indeed, in his account, there was almost more moral than story: ITT was a “huge international conglomerate,” “a veritable corporate nation” which “has built an empire, like Britain’s, upon which the sun never sets”; its hierarchy includes, or has included, numerous world leaders, among them former UN Secretary General Trygve Lie, former Belgian premier Paul-Henri Spaak, and former CIA director John McCone; and through McCone’s CIA contacts ITT had been “plotting” to “block Allende’s election and, thus, interfere in Chile’s free-election process.” While he was at it, Anderson noted that ITT had developed an “incestuous” association with the Nixon Administration.

Anderson conceded, rather confusedly, that ITT hadn’t actually done anything, despite the gleam in its corporate eye: The CIA plan was “too wild even for ITT” (and God knows that’s wild); and ITT’s attempts to enlist White House and State Department support got only a “polite but cool reception.”

JS

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Joseph Sobran

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It will be recalled that seven weeks passed between Allende’s narrow plurality victory in the popular election, which threw the decision into the Congress, and his final confirmation by the Congress. Anderson charged that, in the interim, ITT offered the State Department over $1 million to stop Allende, without specifying how: So much, on the evidence of the memos Anderson secured and circulated, is clear enough. Anderson himself was vague about the details, although he was- clear enough about the moral of the story. Indeed, in his account, there was almost more moral than story: ITT was a “huge international conglomerate,” “a veritable corporate nation” which “has built an empire, like Britain’s, upon which the sun never sets”; its hierarchy includes, or has included, numerous world leaders, among them former UN Secretary General Trygve Lie, former Belgian premier Paul-Henri Spaak, and former CIA director John McCone; and through McCone’s CIA contacts ITT had been “plotting” to “block Allende’s election and, thus, interfere in Chile’s free-election process.” While he was at it, Anderson noted that ITT had developed an “incestuous” association with the Nixon Administration.

Anderson conceded, rather confusedly, that ITT hadn’t actually done anything, despite the gleam in its corporate eye: The CIA plan was “too wild even for ITT” (and God knows that’s wild); and ITT’s attempts to enlist White House and State Department support got only a “polite but cool reception.”