Chile's Pinochet Led Coup w/ Thomas777

We're going to talk about what happened there and why it became such a critical Cold War battle theater. And that's the way to understand this. That's the way to understand this that's the way to understand the totality of what became Operation Condor. That's the way to understand the situation in Argentina, which was a lot more murky and

conspiratorial than that at Chile. I mean that weren't the discussion all onto itself, but particularly the the you know what developed in Nicaragua and l Salvador and uh Granada was key as well in the final phase of the Cold War, and people they don't fully understand. At the time, people generally did. It's interesting how they kind of tortured rationales. People would resort to these Peter Arnett types, and even Oliver Stone who made a pretty negative partisan movie about

you know, Central America. I think it was actually called Salvador. I don't know how these people could rationalize. I mean, I know how they did superficially, I mean I was alive during the time, but how they could sort of redact in their own mind the fact that Central and South America, you know, maybe we refer to as Latin America in total, was an active battle space in the final phase of the Cold War, and it was a truly critical battle space because not just in terms of

American credibility VI theam Unro doctrine and things. But that would have rectified the strategic imbalance that Warsaw Packed was always disadvantaged by owing the you know, facts of geography and the fact that in that epoch the way four structures were, you know, owing to the technology the day it conferred a tremendous advantage on NATO potentially that it could strike you know, basically from you know, within critical

range decapitation range. Ultimately we're talking about strategic nuclear platforms a Soviet territory. But the and finally, and I'll bring it back to the discussion at hand in more precise terms, and the daytad Era, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pack and adjacent states, they were winning the Cold War. It in military terms, it didn't matter that Warsaw Pack was a basket case in terms of its internal situation.

It didn't matter that the Soviets are negotiating, uh, you know, a crisis within the Kremline itself a leadership as you know, it's kind of aged gerontocracy, like literally died off. You know. Uh,

America was soundly defeated in Vietnam. Nixon mitigated, Uh, the significance of that, but decoupling Beijing from warsaw packed but that didn't entirely nullify the impact of the outcome obviously, and that led to in turn, you know, the America ended up backing the commun Rouge against the People's Army of Vietnam, you know, because the Khmune Rouge were China's proxy.

So this prom so this three way proxy war developed, you know, between the Khmer Rouge, you know, who were victorious against Landol's forces, you know, between the Khmer Rouge and the People's Army of Vietnam. You know, the United the Chinese had their own agenda there, but the United States and the People's at China were nominally backing the bagging the Khmer Rouge against the Soviet client in Vietnam.

The Soviets responded, you know, by throwing heavy military developmental subsidies in India, you know, and uh reaffirming their Friendship Pact as a hedge against China. America responded, you know, by by taking on Pakistan, you know, and UH and in bagging Pakistan and the Indo Pakistan War, you know, and drop off Ustanov and uh Gram ego as the kind of trifecta of executive leadership in the Soviet Union at the time. You know that that's what caused them

to actually move in Afghanistan. I think, like we talked about, like they were convinced that the Afghan regime was gonna the Afghania regime was gonna pivot towards the United States, and uh, they thought that, you know, they thought that Carter uh was heavily cultivating that, especially going to the loss of Iran. But also I mean that would you know Afghanistans with the decapitation arrange of Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan

was you know, that's what Star City is. I mean, that was critical to Soviet strategic nuclear command and control. So I mean this was uh, you know, basically the tent.

What ended it? I mean it was the invasion of Afghanistan and other things, but it uh, you know, the Communists run the move on every continent and goal is another one, okay, And there was neither the political will nor the force isn't being anymore for America to force to enforce the Truman doctor and then come to the direct aid of these you know, friendly states under siege

by Communist elements, and you know, the military itself. You know that the draft had ended, and the revolution of military affairs hadn't you know, gotten off and been implemented yet in any meaningful way. Although these these weapons systems and this command control technology like did exist, it just hadn't been integrated into you know, force structures and being in a meaningful way yet. But you know, looking at a map in uh nineteen seventy three, again in military terms,

the Soviet Union is winning the Cold War. Chile is an oddly situated place and kind of like Argentina, there was high hopes for it. You know, if used to talk about Argentina like it was going to be the United States of South America, which obviously didn't happen. But you know, despite the racial kind of mixture in these countries, they're more European than they are like America or Canada. You know, Chile became a pretty major regional military power

after what was called the War of the Pacific. This took place in eighteen seventy nine eighteen eighty four. Chile fought against the coalition of Peru and Bolivia and and one this kind of like uh, you know, like like like Prussian style like blitz Victory, okay, and acquired a lot of territory and a lot of clout, but obviously again owing to AH its situation on the cone of South America. I mean there's a strategic significance there regardless.

You know, it's not like the South Atlantic, you know, and access to the South Atlantic and specifically the ability to engage you know, the US fleet in the Atlantic potentially you know, before it even you know, is able to deploy beyond uh, you know, the Western hemisphere potentially.

I mean, that was huge. But it's also you know, there's a there, there's there's there's something to the idea of revolutionary ideology being sort of like a fire that catches or some kind of virulent backless if you'll forgive the kind of overwrought metaphor. But that's true, and people are accepting that more and more now. Not not because they've taken on some kind of unutive view of commune in history or something, and not even that that's that's

that's not even really in the contemplation. And most of these kind of like neuroscience types and you know, kind of like cultural psychologists. But you know, people talk about the way like memes become truly viral and like information it becomes viral. You know, that's kind of a narrow that's kind of a whittled down version of what the phenomena I'm talking about. And you know, revolutionary momentum uh

is something that is a real thing. You know, it's the analogies are myriad, you know, across accounting for racial and cultural differences and you know, really uh really uh controlling for all variables suggesting true diversity. You know this

this can't really be denied. So all us aside, you know, like as I've talked about with respect to Vietnam, and you know previously one of the ways that parts with people like Meersheimer, but this idea that you have this kind of like materialist view of warfare, this kind of cloudset which on steroidsvie of warfare like well, you know, credibility doesn't matter, you know, and as so long as you have you know, strategic forces and being to devastate

your enemy. And there was no quote you know, key, there there's no essential interest in Vietnam. It didn't matter, you know, in the twentieth century, like wars weren't fought, you know, to control you know, access to rubber plantations, you know, or like you know, fur trade routes. Like Vietnam became World War three by proxy because like that's

where the battle lines were drawn. Like that's where the Communists attacked, you know, and that's where uh, that's that's where Washington had to had to draw the line and respond. You know, it didn't matter that it was in Sou East Asia and there's not some quote key interests there according to you know, traditional paradigms of political economy. So in Chile, even if there was nothing in Chile, I mean there wasn't there wasn't there is beginning. If there wasn't,

it didn't matter. You know, Uh, a communist revolution there would have, uh would have developed tremendous momentum that had profound significance beyond its borders and uh probably even beyond you know, like the South American continent and into you know,

Central and uh in North America. Even so, I don't think to keep in mind, now, what what was the situation in Chile generally, Like because this is important, it relates to like out love the Junta Tennischet himself and why they were such a test case and staunch resistance

to communism and taking a cultural anthropologist. They used to write quite a bit about this, you know, why why some of these in their mind and this is a superficial view of my point, like why some of these Latin American states seemed almost like mirror Franco was Spain, but it Spaniards and Portuguese and populations derived primarily from those cultural malouse they're not. These people don't represent a martial race in the way we think of like the

Spartans of the Prussians. But there's some deeply insinuated like military culture there. Okay, there just is you know, uh, whether it's the coute is it? You know the quote of Adalgo kind of like we're large, is it? You know that there's something sanguinary in my opinion to Spanish Catholicism. I don't mean that punitive terms. I think that's actually quite fascinating, you know. But the you see, this is some degree in France too, but in the Iberian cultures

it's more pronounced. But the military heads had an outsized role in Chile, you know, like it did in Spain, like it didn't Portugal, like it does in Italy or it didn't Italy. Okay, this is a fact. There was a there was a culture into itself. Okay, Now there is a Chile. As I just mentioned, Chile has unusual geography. It's always successful potential encirclement by rival states in the

north and to the east. So it's institutional orientation of its armed forces was always on the possibility of fighting a multi front war. Now who executive does that sound like? That sounds exactly like the Prussians and what gave rise to the staff system, which you know, ultimately every modern army imitates. But there was going to this fact even before the Chilean military modernized, you know, in the in the wake of you know, the the Great War and

what have you. There's always certain there there's always an understanding that, you know, Chile, the Chilean army, in particularly the army had to be built around a kind of cadre structure, you know, where some version of mission oriented tactics that had to be cultivated. You know, they're like, you know, anybody in a leadership role from like NCO upward would have to exhibit you know, a superior training

efficiency motivation. You know, basically man for man be better than the enemy, okay, because again Chile was was basically always facing a kind of like on Schleief and quagmire, if that makes any sense. And there's certain anthropological factors too, of a of a more kind of cultural nature, okay, Like the the Chilean army was very, very very Catholic. The background of Pinochet himself as well as Admiral Marino Jose Todebo Merino Castro, they were the two most important

figures in the junta. Pinochet was out front, but this was you know, rule by a military committee basically, and uh not, Marino was a It was kind of the brains of the junta. Like I mean, Penchet was a very intelligent man, as we'll see, but Admirbles tend to be like a cut above in terms of intellectual capabilities and organizational skills and things. But they both these men

kind of came to define. They were both like exemplars of the Chilean military culture after nineteen twenty or so, and they also were absolutely the most significant personages in

the in the emergency government, both of them. Pinochet went into a journalist, he said he was like Saint Peter, like literally, you know, he said, I I God's elected us, you know, us being the Chilean army to fulfilled missions and prepare the path, you know, and we're just preparing the path, you know, for for salvation, you know, of all of all of the entire choir, you know, where we're literally like Christian warriors, you know. And pinisiate believe

that one hundred and ten percent. You know, he wasn't just he wasn't just saying that to kind of you know shore up. Uh. His is his public image or something, you know, And even even if he'd wanted to like, that's not the way he'd go about it. I mean, even even then when there was you know, kind of a Catholic moment owing to the only only a certain certain things related to the Cold War and in the

situation in Northern Ireland and other stuff. But in the event after World War Two, obviously people you know think about they you know, they they conceptualize, uh, these these Latin American states you know, taking up with America in uh for you know, for out a strategic convenience as well as going to the you know kind of the

kind of pentagons like outsized influent. It's only to them on Roe doctrine and other things, and it's kind of like historical variables, you know, plus the fact that direct capital subsidies were always coveted, you know, by these countries. You know, even though these states weren't ruined by World War Two, they were like goun touched, you know, there was they still there was still short on development and

perpetually short on capital. But there was something superficial about this on the side of uh, these states who were coveting American patronage, like US military influence never really took

in Latin America. You know, none of these countries like Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, all these all these states where you know that America, all these states that basically America set up things like the School of the Americas to cultivate military and independence with like US military influence never overwhelmed the

kind of local traditions and professional soldiers there. You know, there's there's a massive streak of anti communism, like throughout you know, the professional military caste in Chile and Chile especially, but throughout Latin America, and this long preceded you know what we're talking about like the efforts of you know, the American successive American regimes to kind of you know cultivate this ongoing alliance structure with with with Latin American

you know, like military type regimes it uh and the you know, the and even uh even in terms of professional development and things like all modern armies need to be habituated the technology and like comfortable with really you know, relatively high tech you know, weapons platforms and uh that very much like like a very like in Chile as well and elsewhere, very much uh like a technically competent class within the army developed, but beyond that, the kind

of like managerial and leadership style and like institutional culture of America like didn't really take there, you know, Like now now why is that? It's interestingly in Chile there's a hugely disproportionate number of officers who came from immigrant backgrounds now against a Chile. Those immigrants were German, they were English, they were Italian, they were French, they were Syrian,

they were Croatian. That's why when you look at like a roster of of the Chilean officer corps, like first of all, it's a bunch of like white and kind of like Arab or like you know, Italian looking guys. And they've got like European surnames, you know, so you've you've quite literally got this kind of European and europe and europe adjacent officer or in a country that's you know,

frankly majority mixed race, you know. So it's you're talking about like literally like a culture within it, within a broader culture, you know, not just of an institutional sort, but of you know, an actual you know, like like like ethnic type, you know, ethnic sort, rather like categorically like, uh, there were two German speaking Lutherans on h On uh in the junta. It was uh Fernando Matthai uh, the Air force commander and Rodolpho Strange, who was the chief

and National police something there you go. And uh, A lot of these immigrant families, if they weren't moneyed, you know, like they they encouraged their sons to become military officers because that was really the way, that was the only way to get clout if you weren't part of the national majority, you know. The Uh. Now, of course, the Marxist view, which has faded somewhat obviously it's the cold war. But it's kind of like this, it's kind of like

this cockroach that won't die. It just like emerges again and again and and it doesn't help that like Howard is in it kind of as like new life now in US academia. But most scholars, even most military sociologists, they're tainted some of this idea that like, you know, look like South American soldiers, like you know, from the officer corps on down, you know, to the end level

of n c o s. They just represented there. They were basically like mercenaries who like represent the interests of global capitalism, like backed up by the Pentagon, you know, and they and they were like basically like the security force that techno creits and and uh and and and you know and in factory owners you know, and you know, they're they're they're raised on detros, destroyed left wing politics.

You don't empower these techno creats who can facilitate, you know, the the assimilation of these countries like into the globalist structure, like that doesn't really make any sense, okay, And like it doesn't in the case like a real lack of understanding of kind of human motivations and what attracts people to you know, kind of the institutional trappings of like heritage and ritual and stuff like nobody a bunch of a bunch of salvad orient National police types and a

bunch of Chilean officers weren't just like pretending to be Catholic because they're like they were worried about their public image, you know, and they weren't. They weren't goose stepping around the parade deck because they thought that that would make people. They thought that they thought that that would like help

their image. Okay, I mean like it's it's not you know, and plus the kind of stuff that you know, as we'll see, you know, guys like Pinochet, you know these This was not a situation like with Zelenski, where uh you know, some sort of crist I mean, you couldn't really have a Zelensky situation in the Cold War. But my point is not it's not like it's not like Pinochet.

It was like pocketing a bunch of money and him in his general as well, getting rich and picking up teenage mistresses and like ripping around in Mercedes and in the streets of uh, you know, Santiago or whatever, you know, it. These guys lived almost some anastic life, you know, like they they didn't they didn't live in poverty, but they

you know, they did they didn't. They didn't have me they didn't have means, you know, like even uh like Pinochet prior to prior to the junta and even he he basically like lived like a pauper or it didn't really own anything, you know, something this idea that this idea that you know, oh well, all these all these kinds of weird I mean not weird in a punitive way, but all these unusual let me let let's let's let's employ that the scriptor this kind of like unusual features

a Latin American military life, that somehow these were just like super structural trappings, you know, that kind of like hid what amount to do a literally mercenary ethos like that's this is like nonsense. Now what uh what was we we? You know, we we got into the fact that America didn't really put a lasting stamp on the on the Latin American military culture generally and specifically Chilean

military life. But what did well after the uh, after the War the Pacific, you know, which we talked about a minute ago, which ended in eighteen eighty four. The president uh Do Mingo Santa Maria. He realized that the army needed to modernize and reoranize itself in the model

of a European army. They basically out fought Peru and Bolivia, you know, but it uh they you know, the world was changing and he and the army was still low tech like basically with carry the day was again like a very game officer corps, you know, that was and cod evn CIOs the rint of missionary and tactics and frankly, you know, just a lot of a lot of a lot of men who are very tough and very hungry

for prestige and uh and to serve the fatherland. But what uh, what what the Chilean has decided on They fixed their sites in Germany, who they viewed as uh, you know, kind of like the zenith of of of a military prowess, you know. And and then that's kind of when German cloud was at it was added zenith. I would say, okay, the uh, the Chilean regime, it was it was already familiar with Germans as a people,

like in the south of the country. Basically the German colonization down there, like it it led to tremendous capital development, you know, and the uh, there's basically a sense of like, well, what can't these people do, you know, like it, uh, we we want to cultivate interdependence with the Germans anyway, because you know, they're like we basically like we need these people. You know. It's like a shot in the arm of our the entire paradigm of national development. You know.

The embassy in Berlin, the Chilean embassy in Berlin was in the charge of a guy named Guermo Mata. He contacted the German military directly. He apparently had some kind of good rapport with Marshall von Molt, you know, who was uh like a heavy heavy personage and he uh he was ultimately uh he was ultimately put uh put in touch for the man named Emil Corner, who was an artillery captain Opprussian and he was stationed at the Artillery and Engineering School of Charlottenburg. So basically he had

a background minus the calorie experience like blackjack person. You know, this is like exact the kind of man you want, you know, if you're looking for like a single man you know, uh of a middle level officer rank to bring your forces up to par you know it. They really kind of struck gold of them. The guy was also like a big war hero, you know. He Uh he signed on for a five year work agreement with Chile AIDS and he basically the Chileans told him, like,

you know, basically they turn our forest into the Prussian Army. Okay, and after becoming a Chilean officer himself corner sort of the armies inspector general for a decade from until nineteen ten. Okay. So the army that the army that Pinechet joined joined in nineteen thirty three, okay, suspicious year, right, and uh, basically this army had just been like restructured and the kind of like the Prussian Army of Latin America. Okay,

it was a total leader of an institution then. Uh than that that that was you know, people entered, you know, like a generation earlier, you know that like Pinochet's father like you know, would have would have encountered. Penichet was born. Uh, he was born in November nineteen November twenty fifth, nineteen nineteen fifteen. He was the descendant of Breton immigrants and uh and Basques. His bast carritage was maternal. The family had been in Chile since the seventeenth century. The Breton

immigrants were recent. But that's uh, that's a very interesting category at least I think so Penche always wanted to be a soldier. His great uncle was a veteran of the War of the Pacific. His uh, you know, his his godfather told him about you know, uh, serving in the French army in World War One. Eventually his father kind of like relented, even though he wanted him to study medicine, you know, and pursue a more kind of traditional path the cloud because like Pinochet's family was well off,

you know, they weren't. They weren't people who needed, you know, a military officers son to enjoy upward mobility, and uh, what was common, uh, what was common among his coterie of officers, including you know, historians have taken the oral histories of these guys who came of age when Pinochet did, and there's actually a fair amount of like these in conflict literature on this. You know, I'm not not necessarily friendly variant, but it's it's pretty value neutral. But these guys,

it wasn't just pinish it. He wasn't just kind of like romantic dream or outlier like the officers of that generation pretty much to a man, they talked about Catholicism and a childhood fascination with with like military heroes, you know, and like the discipline of you know these you know these uh the you know these these officers who were you know who in in like Prussian uniforms, you know, but like flawless like parade drill and things like that.

You know, like this is basically like any like any kid of like European stock, like European or Arab or like you know, adjacent stock in Chile, Like this is what he wanted to be, you know, Like they can't really be overstated. Like Robert O'Kelly, who is Pinechet's economics minister, you know, and again, uh, you know, a guy of

European pedigree. His grandfather was a was a navy man in the world of Pacific, like he said, like in his biography, it never is autobiography, it never it never occurred to me to be anything else than a sailor, Like, without a doubt, the navy is a vocation, like the priesthood, not everybody is called to be tied to the post. Like that's what these guys looked at it again and you know like where the where the where they where the vanguard of the fatherland and where you know and

we're and we're you know where they where? The church militant. You know, that's that's a remarkably powerful combination of cultural

identitarian variables. You know, the uh and there was ah the army uh in there a a uh even even when even when a military draft is implemented, pursue it to the you know, twentieth century reforms like the way like army literature like they're like recruiting literature at the time and kind of like they're they're sort of you know, after a these like kind of like after action what amounts a kind of like these kind of like romantic novels of like the Daring do of of Officers and

there were the Pacific but it's kind of like dressed up as like after action reports. Like it was like all like the theme that is like on the nose, like through all this stuff is uh. You know that you know, being a soldier is it's it's it's different than any other vocation because soldiers give their lives to the fatherland, you know, like a like a monk gives his life to the church, you know. And it's it's

not that that that's unique, it's uniquely Catholic. It's like you need, it's both uniquely Prussian and uniquely Catholic, which is, you know, a collision of uh of opposing tendencies. But you know that's uh that there's there's a syncreticism. There's a syncretism there that's really interesting. But the uh there it also something and this was again like another Prussian tendency that was brought to bear. There's a really strong

devotion to continual study of warfare that uh. Pinochet said that, you know, he first started reading when he got to the military. His first reading assignment was the Rebellion of the Master it is or the Revolt of the Master it is by they were taking guess it's and a lot of friends of ours will be familiar with it. And the Gallic War was by Caesar. After that he became this bibliophile. Penichet when he died went to approximately fifty five thousand books like many of which were rare

and one of a kind. So he was a he was another like man of books. That makes me feel a bit better about my own book hoarding. Frankly, now here's get into kind of like the nitty gritty of what created this, you know, kind of irreparable divide between you know, civil society and the Chilean army. You know what, it wasn't just the kind of factors we talked about a moment ago of an identitarian sort, but very very few military personnel actually voted in elections in Chile, even

though they were technically allowed to. It wasn't illegal, but it was considered unseemly. You know, soldiers aren't supposed to be political, and you know, not just because they're they're supposed to serve you know, the fatherland first and foremost and not not discreet you know, political factions or or interests they're in. But it's also like it's it's it's viewed.

They viewed it as like beneath them, you know, particularly consider the kind of elitist and and you know, uh monastic sort of id like self concept these men had. And also the uh when the when the draft was? Uh? When when the conscript? When the when the conscription regime was implemented, you know, uh, the like the new conscripts. I couldn't vote, you know, because they weren't they weren't, they weren't twenty one.

You know, you know what pre servers fook you for basing Like I I know what I'm talking about in this regard. Okay, I I Am not gonna argue the point because it's obvious, but the it uh considering uh, considering the size of that of Chile's electorate and the number of commission and noncommissioned officers and the forearmed services taken together, and this is both politically and statistically significant.

Like military votes, they're like if if if I'm listening to an authors had voted in appreciable numbers, it may not have decided any any any and you know, any presidential contest one or the other. But relatively but relatively small pluralities decided national elections regularly in Chile, and particularly in nineteen fifty eight, in nineteen seventy where uh, something like thirty nine thousand votes, you know, like like we're

what put the winning candidate over? You know, it's the uh and also too like it was it was it was it was against the law. It was a literally, it was literally a crime for you know that would available to court martial to protest, you know. Uh. And that was a pretty that was a pretty widely that's

pretty that's pretty loosely interpreted. Okay, I mean anybody, you know, a man coulda be brought up on charges and a failed to courts martial, you know, not just for joining you know, some not just like throwing bricks in the street at you know it a cap with or whatever.

But just if you associated with the parties that were considered to be, you know, have a platform that tended towards you know, trying to have this credit the political process, you know, based on ideological commitments or you know, associating with parties who's you know do his tink members you know, had said things that impe impugned the honor of the fatherland like this is this is not something they would

have fuck with. Okay, like even even more they inclined and they weren't and uh pinichet to I mean starting a service, you know, quite literally in nineteen thirty three, there was even greater kind of technical aptitude demanded by new officers, especially in the Navy and the Air Force, but I mean also in the army, particularly as regards

command and control, you know, the UH. So as these officers became more world leagues, they had to be like they'd send them they'd be sent to you know, they'd be sent to UH, Africa, Asia, Europe, other places in Latin America, you know, to as inn liaison capacity and to like learn from other militaries and like as these guys developed you know, linguistic attitudes for foreign languages as they literally saw the rest of the world, you know, as they talked to you know, they they talked to

Wehrmacht officers, you know, they talk to you know, French officers, they talk to guys you know, like serving uh In uh In you know, in Mexico close to the American border or whatever. Like, they developed a worldly perspective, and they came to understand you know, as time went on, they you know, they came to they came to understand the Cold War, you know, and they developed an idea of like where Chile featured into that, you know, by

the Pinochet era. Like It's what I'm getting is that these weren't just like a bunch of provincial roots or something, or like we're trying to turn back the clock or whatever. And they weren't just you know, mercenaries for hire in the service of you know, basically acting like I think like you know, like like like pinkertons on steroids, you know,

beat down or calc trent like labor types. You know, they they developed an understanding of like Veldt politique and where Latin America featured into that equation, you know, and this brings us to what was insidious about Alende. Okay, Sauter Orlande in the nineteen sixties was a very busy boy. Okay,

his schedule tookhim to North Korea, North Vietnam. In East Germany, Allende believed that the DDR was his best bet in terms of identifying a patron the which is very interesting, and the DDR it wasn't just the spear point of Warsaw pack like the National volks Army wasn't just a spear point of Warsaw Pact. And not only was East Germany kind of like the crown jewel of like this the Stalinist satellite states. East Germany practiced the kind of world politique in a way that the Cubans did, but

like a little bit more sophisticated. Even like there's these Germans Angola, there was East Germans in Yemen which became South Yemen. There's these Germans uh in Ethiopia, Eritrea, there's East Germans on Grenada. When you know, the US Army assaulted Grenado in eighty three for a for what I'm wanted to do, a rump state of twenty million people and a regime that was constantly uh dealing with an

existential threat on its inner border. Like literally like these guys were remarkably active in uh In, in waging the Cold War and in a in like a direct action capacity you know, to say nothing like the bottom minehoff Gang, to say nothing of you know, uh them bank rolling in train the popular Front of liberations in Palestine, Like

it's remarkable. But Allende knew this. Okay, In East Berlin, Aline met with the party secretary general and de facto you know, head of State Walter Ubricht, who preceded Honiker from forty nine to seventy one. Ubricht was General Secretary and then he was under cremoniously sideline in favor of Honiker from nineteen seventy one until the end. But uh he u Ubricht put him in direct content with Hermann Akson, who was who was the Central Committee Secretary for a

national relations the equivalent of the foreign minister. Okay, action's assignment for the duration of his tenure, particularly in the sixties and seventies, he was the function as a liaison with communist parties throughout the world, you know, and and basically this is the stuff that smacks of you know like the old days the Communist International, you know, which U with Stalin, you know, put an end to by

Dick Todd and and turned into common form. But it's but but it goes to show you how uh, how these this these things never really went away. You know, they developed a certain operational sophistication and and kind of institutionalization and and and kind of and kind of a streamline operational set of operational tendencies. But it you know, they they remained the same beast of prey, but with

different slightly different stripes it uh as it were. But uh, whether or Lending met with the Stazi directly and Eric Milk, it's not known, but I imagine he would have. Okay, Eric Milk was uh he was in direct content with Daniel Ortega, with uh, with Kadafi, with Minjitsu with uh you know all these all these uh, all these proxy all these proxy elements that uh, the Warsaw Pact was was uh, you know, directly supporting and Shtazi men. Uh. Their role was not just as uh you know, policeman

and as espionage espionage agents. They had a role that we considered it more kind of the more suggestive of special Operations Command. It's complicated, but uh, the the East Berlin basically treated accents recommendations like they came from on high. Okay, he was that good. I think it was kind of like a I think kind of I think of this kind of it's kind of like a a red crowd version of George Kennon, like legit, I mean, I have, like all respect, A lot of these d d R

functionaries were damn impressive. Definitely the best that the worst up Peck produced. Of course, what Alinda was doing didn't go unnoticed. C I a Defense Intelligence CIA at that time. It was losing what remaining cloud it had, but it was still uh it was still primarily like the eyes and ears of of American intelligence behind the East blot, behind the Berlin Wall, you know. So CI they took notice immediately when allendi was started popping up in East Berlin.

Uh Nixon, Uh Nixon, uh said the Kissinger. He's like, look, you know this Alandi's not he's not some he's not some simple farmer or some starry eyed you know, uh, just uh you know, self styled uh you know, agrarian revolutionary, like this guy is serious, you know, and he's he's not what you know, American liberals are presenting him as and he's not benign, you know, and Kusinger obviously agreed. I mean, I you know it. Uh. The uh also is the fact chill the Chilean the Chilean Communist Party

was uh. It was by far the largest and best organized in South America, Okay, And that's one of the things. That's one of the things that made it appealing to the d d R. And also we were talking about the Germans and the wonderful things they did for Chile. Well some of those Germans were unfortunately communists, and they you know, we're building up political architecture on the other side, you know, and this was, uh, this is very much

a problem, it uh. I mean from a geopolitical view, I mean, think about that, like the cone of Latin America just becoming communists, you know, or uh, all of Latin America falling and maybe Brazil remaining kind of in this garrison siege capacity. I mean that that changes everything, you know. And like I've always said, like I'm always saying, it didn't matter that these marsais Lands regimes are totally

dysfunctional and created a created economies of shortage. There's all kinds of governments that don't really work, right that that

Shambalaine perpetuity. It was very possible. It was not at all the stuff of kind of like fever dream nightmare fantasies to imagine a world where post aton like the entire the entire like developing world or colored world goes red like kind of the remaining like American friendly regimes outside of UH, Northern Europe and Japan, you know, just like eventually just kind of like succumb and fall and America becomes kind of just like to say, Garrison state,

like surrounded by like a hostile communist world like that very easily could have come about, Okay, and that that would be a very dangerous planet. You know, we could argue at some or we can discuss at some point whether that's preferable or not to the current situation. But it that's Monday morning quarterback, and in the epoch of you know, say nineteen seventy three, you know, seventy four to seventy five, this was absolutely a very real possibility. Okay.

Now the minute, the minute, the moment A Landy was elected president Chile, UH, the East German regime like through Stazi support behind him. Okay, within a couple of weeks. It doesn't like COVID operation. The Grilla warfare specialists who were from the Stasi, they were dispatched a Sandiago and there diplomatic cover. They were joined by other East Block UH special operations capable elements, including from Czechoslovakia and and and then the Soviet Union itself and all probability. They

set up a camp near Valparaiso. UH. The Soviets furnished weapons, prefabricated huts. They like they literally just set up this kind of like grilla warfare school, like bam, you know, like it's like, uh, it's like if you buy like a McDonald's franchise. It's like you buy like a you buy you buy like a revolutionary communist franchise from Ivan and they show up and it's just like bam, you know,

here's here's like your franchise literature. Here's a buy Klashnik coughs you here's something like snazzy freaking uh you know, uh uniforms, and you know, and here's here's some you know, like here's something like enameled like red star pins for your freaking cap and like you're good to go, you know, like go go, go, go go capitalists. But the UH

and Milk actually wrote he Milk would UH. He'd sent out these what amounts to enter off his memos to every directorate of the Stazi periodically, and on December eighteenth, nineteen seventy two, he said, Uh, you know, the CHECKS or the d DR will will welcome with enthusiasm and happiness the great victory of the National Celerity movement for obtaining the freedom of the Secondary General or the Communist Party. Your friend and comrade Lewis Corvellon. Like Corvellon was some

guy who'd been like in prison in Chile. I can't remember exactly what the and Milk would call. He called UH Ministry for State Security Officers, like checkis you know, because there's a callback to his days as a as an nkv D hitter, you know, during during UH the war in Spain and later the UH later UH the Second World War. But my point is like he was attuned like like Chile was very much like a key

like theater in his mind. Okay, That's why he was That's why he was UH like braying about you know, these these UH, these kind of like like like little chess moves in Chile, like in Blu of other theaters.

The UH, the Stasi set set to work UH in Chile, UH targeting UH, you know, target targeting Pinochet loyalists and what have you, you know, essentially essentially creating like a mirror of you know, in security terms, you know, like this wasn't this wasn't really above board yet it wasn't Allende wasn't in the driver's seat long enough for UH Santiago to become you know, like a giant a giant version of of of East Berlin. But I think I mentioned the camera for we were on here or not?

But like Ali North mentioned that when he was UH when he traveled to UH, when he traveled in Nicaragua in nineteen eighty three or eighty four, like when when he himself was under diplomatic cover, like he relaid back by like telex that you know, like Monagua now is like it's like a scale model of of Checkpoint Charlie, the inner German border, you know, and it now what what happened during Pinochet's rain or like the Junta's reign

Chile deteriorated into what something comparable to the years of lead. In Italy, Okay, there's a leftist urban guerrilla terror groups. They began, uh, a campaign of bombings, assassinations, you know, exactly the kind of bread and butter stuff that the Shazi taught people to do. You know, there was a that there's bombs exploding in Santiago, in Vienna, Del mar In, uh in all the major you know kind of commercial hubs and larger towns at Chile. You know, they were

they were, they were, they were. They were targeting supermarkets, buses, government offices, you know, like shopping centers, you know, just like indiscriminately, like blowing people to hell. You know. This really ramped up in Earnest by the eighties, which is interesting.

Between ninet eighty three and nineteen eighty six, there's more than a thousand bombings attributed to the Clandestine Communist Front and uh, this group in the color itself, the Revolutionary Movement, which is probably an umbrella of it, was probably like a like numerous like nonstate actors like under this kind of like rubric, you know, but because it may like they uh, they uh, a total of twenty one national police and military casualties were attributed to them in just

four years. When nineteen eighty four nineteen eighty eight, East Germany contributed six million, seven or ninety five thousand and fifteen dollars to the Chilean Communist Party, that's a huge sum for forty years ago. And this is East Germany doing it. So they're basically just like they're they're they're throwing everything in their cash reser is basically that they've availed for, you know, foreign operations of a military sort. They're they're just like throwing this into the at their

proxies in Chile. You know, I mean this was a this is a this is a highly valued battle theater. Okay, the U the most serious incident I guess of a in terms of potential harm, and the most kind of spectacular not not not let like literally spectacular in terms of the spectacle that I created, not spectacular like it's mourderful. So third seven, nineteen eighty six, UH guerrilla is ambushed

Pinochet's motorcade. Your Santiago pener State survived. He didn't he didn't take any any lad but uh five members of his escort were killed. Ten people were wounded. The uh. It was basically like a comic cozingkind of attack. Twelve gunmen from calling themselves the Manuel where at Riga's Revolutionary Front, like simply assaulted with with automatic weapons and grenades. There was a there was never a trial. The government ever renounced in the arrest. Presumably these men those we're not

killed at the scene. We're running down and and and

and and and done away with Eventually. Uh. There were some including uh including Buro Amiida, you know who UH broke with the Communists completely owing to uh what he claimed was discussed with, you know, the repressive nature of the East German government, which he stated, and I'm sure he I think he probably believed this, you know, He's like, I came to realize if if you know what was then my side one, you know, we we didn't up no better than the East Germans and what have you.

And he broke with Communism and he made he managed to convince everybody, including Pinochet's people that he uh that this was like a genuine conversion, and he went on he went on to in post pinch Chile to be a like a heavy percentage. But and he actually uh his he was posted as uh as an ambassador in Moscow. I don't know if it was like like like who's in humor or what, but the it uh, you know, and the and the list goes on and on of

uh these you know, communist attacks. Uh. Even after Pinochet stepped down, you know, these these kinds of attacks continued.

There's one, I mean not in the same kind of earnest but uh, some of these revolutionary types they they there's like this crazy in nineteen eighty six, the Semer ninety six they escaped, Uh, they escaped from the yard of the of this of this political prison they were held in, like with the help of these of these these original IRA operatives, like just like a helicopter like pulled them off the yard, just like you know, stuff like seeing some fucking like John Wick or Jason Bourne

movie or something. But the you know, the and you know, not not for nothing either, like uh, I mean maybe maybe people don't know this, like Honaker Uh Eric Honecker was buried. He was buried in Chile like after he died and they laid the d d R flag on his coffin and everything, you know, like it's this was

like this idea that you know the Ollendia regime. They were just these like kind of like social democrats you know, who you know, just wanted to, you know, kind of like give an alternative system a chance, and and these fascists, you know, just just just destroyed that potentiality, you know. I mean it was it was real war, Okay. I mean, there's no choice about it. And if people want to, I'm sure very nasty things happened to people who were

suspected of being Communists or Commuy sympathizers. But I mean, what do people want, Like war is a terrible thing, you know, and you can't you can't only tell one side of these stories, you know. I mean, I know the Stazi was doing pretty nasty things to people at the same time, and the Stazi were agents of a foreign government who were trying to, you know, determine the political fate of a of a sovereign country. So that's

that's about all I got for today. We can deep dive more into I mean there's a lot here, man, Frankly, I mean we can we can deep dive more into, like the personage of Pinichet if you want, when I get back from my trip. But that you know, I kind of want to give an overview of the situation as it were, as it was, you know, politically and strategically and culturally and everything else. I hope I've accomplished that well.

protect them everything. I mean, I hear people I know saying these kind of things, and when you start deep diving into it, it's like, yeah, I mean, the guy was at war the whole time he was in office, and you know, to say that he was aware of all these things, and you know he just allowed him to happen, But.

but that that's that's so like fucking weird. That's just like not ship that happens. You know, it's like why and place? It's like who who? Like, like what's the source for this? Like guys who were watching this like came back and told you, like what, Like I it's always like something sexually perverted and just like really really really gross and just like outlandish, like it's you know, the like for some reason, Pinochet has kind of become this like fixation of theirs, you know, like uh, like

it's really weird. You know, it's like why why not? Uh why not Sellizar, Like why not straws Nerd? Like why not? Uh? Prone Like why why Pinochet? Like you know, Pinochet was kind of like what you see is what you get, you know, like he was, uh, you know, he's very much like I mean, he was very much like we talked about. He was very much like a military officer with the kind of Prussian mold who was also like a very very very like pious kind of

warrior catholic. I mean that's there's not I mean there's not that there's not really a lot there. I mean there's a lot there, but I mean, you know, not not in terms of you know, these these kinds of like deep dark and dirty secrets. And plus it's also too like the kind of there's a been noality the

kind of horrible stuff that goes on at war. It's not like exotic weird stuff like there's this like neo Nazi colony of child molesters who are like experimenting with people's DNA and like a soccer stadium where guys like

practice beast reality. But it's not that's that's something from like the Warped Mind to somebody who like watches too much Henti or something, you know, like I it really is, you know, it's like but it's like for years, you know, people tell me that that Earnest like that Nazis they'd like take people's skin off and if they at tattoos, they'd make it into lamp shades and like show their friends.

So it's like why would anybody do that? So you're basically saying that like the Germans are like a bunch of Jeffrey Dahmers, Like like why why would they even oc hurt anybody? You know, like uh, beyond the fact that it's like okay, like where you're getting this information and like who's like telling this to people? Like oh, hey, you know what I did today? Like I I like I found out with these childlisting Germans and then like one of the stadium where like this chip got like

raped by dogs. It was awesome. I mean like like where where's this coming from? Like who's just closing these things?

what I'm going to be dropping there. And by the end of the month, season two with a Mind Phaser podcast is going to drop and at which point all season one content is going to be free, so be able to access everything from season one and all special edition content for free, and subscripsion of season two is only physically five dollars a month, and that's like, that's as low as I can go and still remain and still not eat a loss. So like, unless you're a hobo,

you can afford that. So and I'll make it worth your while. Like I'm constantly like uploading free stuff too. That is uh, that is like a.