US Foreign Policy During the Nix olicy During the Nixon and F on and Ford Administr d Administrations
Recommended Citation
Murdock, Rachael S., “US Foreign Policy During the Nixon and Ford Administrations” (2012). College of
Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 115.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/115
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Rachael S. Murdock
DePaul University, murdockrs@gmail.com
Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd
Recommended Citation
Murdock, Rachael S., “US Foreign Policy During the Nixon and Ford Administrations” (2012). College of
Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 115.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/115
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via
Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations
by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact digitalservices@depaul.edu.
US FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD CHILE
DURING THE
NIXON AND FORD ADMINISTRATIONS
A Thesis
Presented in
Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
March 2012
BY
Rachael Murdock
Department of International Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
DePaul University
Chicago, IL
i
DEDICATION
To my family, whose encouragement and support were essential to the completion of this
project.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A very hearty thanks to my thesis advisor, Dr. Rose Spalding, Professor of Political
Science at DePaul University. Her patience, guidance, encouragement, insight as she
mentored me through the thesis process were indispensible. Great thanks also to Dr.
Patrick Callahan, Professor of Political Science at DePaul. He provided vital insight and
guidance in developing Chapter Two of this thesis and offered excellent input on later
drafts of both Chapters One and Two. I would also like to thank Fr. Thomas Croak,
Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at DePaul. Drs. Spalding,
Callahan, and Croak all served on my thesis committee. Their suggestions at my
proposal defenses were invaluable in shaping the project as I began my research, and
their suggestions at my final defense were invaluable in shaping the final document.
Many, many thanks to you all!
Thanks must also be given to the libraries at DePaul University, the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from whom I
borrowed more books than I can count.
Thank you, as well, to MEPCO Insurance Premium Financing, AXA Assistance, USA,
the Cheatham Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Nutrition
Research Institute, and the School of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte for employing me throughout my career as a graduate student.
Finally, thank you to my parents, Douglas and Ann Murdock, for scouring the pages of
this document for typing errors. I deeply appreciate your assistance!
iii
PREFACE
I first became interested in the topic of CIA involvement in Chile as an undergraduate in
a core humanities course on ethics at Queens University of Charlotte. I had to write a
paper and the topic intrigued me. Like many who have written on the subject, what I first
wanted to know was whether the US could be held responsible for the 1973 coup. What I
discovered was that in a strictly technical sense, though the CIA manipulated the political
situation in Chile, the Agency was not directly involved in the kidnapping attempt on
General Schneider or the successful coup three years later, and so I concluded in my
paper.
As I began to think about my graduate thesis project, I discovered that my initial question
was neither very interesting nor very useful.
First, it’s an unresolveable question. The CIA was not directly involved in the major
events of 1970 and 1973 in Chile, but the US Government certainly did what policy
makers perceived was necessary to encourage both actions. It is impossible to determine,
however, what would have happened had the US refrained from using its covert powers
of influence.
Second, there can be little practical application derived from determining whether the US
can be held responsible for the events of 1970 and 1973 in Chile. What could be gained
by simply passing judgment? Not much. There is a more interesting question, a
question with more possibilities for future practical application: how did the United
States find itself acting in a matter fundamentally discordant with core American political
values? That is the subject of this thesis.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication i
Acknowledgements ii
Preface iii
Tables and Figures vi
Commonly Used
Acronyms
vii
- Introduction, Methodology, and Sources 1
Introduction 1
The Why and The How 5
Methodology 8
Data Analysis 10
Literature Review 14
Limitations and Delimitations 30
Chapter Outline 32 - Foreign Policy Making During the Nixon and Ford Administrations: Theories of
US Intervention
34
Introduction 34
“A Philosophical Deepening” 35
Two Different Foreign Policy Constructs 40
The Fundamental Inferiority of Latin Americans 43
Concern for Public Image 50
Centralization of the Policy Making Process 53
Domestic Factors Affecting Policy Toward Chile 56
Foreign Policy Making During the Ford Administration 61
Alternative Interpretations 62
Conclusion 67 - Build-Up to a Coup 72
Introduction 72
The United States and Chile, 1958 to 1970 74
Election Day and Its Aftermath 86
Perpetrator Testimony 100 - Dealing with the Allende Government 117
Introduction 117
US Response to Allende’s Election 119
Internal Factors: Failure of Allende’s Economic Plan
and Political Upheaval
134
September 11, 1973 141
Perpetrator Testimony 145
Conclusion 160 - Fall-Out in Washington and Human Rights Abuses in Chile 164
Introduction 164
Brief Post-Coup Narrative 165
Official Investigations: The Church Committee and the
Hinchey Report
170
v
The Department of State and the Horman and Teruggi
Cases
182
The Rise of Human Rights on the International Stage 186
The Pinochet Regime’s Human Rights Record and US
Response
189
Operation Condor 193
Perpetrator Testimony 205 - Conclusions 212
Introduction 212
The Nixon and Ford Administrations’ Foreign Policy
Making Process in Action
212
Theories of Intervention 218
Interpreting the Chilean Case 219
Conclusion 226
Bibliography 235
Dynastic Successions Book 