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;void(0)) CHILE & CHINA . . . see "PLACES" for related links What Really Happened In Chile 30 Years Ago By James R. Whelan Having recovered from the worst of his own socialist deliriums, George Orwell wrote, after viewing the carnage of the Civil War in Spain: "At an early age, I became aware that newspapers report no event correctly. But in Spain, I read for the first time articles which bore no relation to the facts, not even the relation implicit in an ordinary lie." Of no nation since would that doleful observation apply more keenly than to the Chile of Salvador Allende and of Augusto Pinochet. Consider the Chilean revolution of that other September 11 — Sept. 11, 1973. It was less bloody than any other major 20th century revolution and, in economic and political terms it produced the best outcome. And yet, it is the most reviled of any in all the annals of Latin America. Hear first from Gonzalo Vial Correa, arguably Chile's leading contemporary historian. He has written that Chile's sociopolitical system, beginning at the end of the 19th century, "suffered a progressive decay, culminating in its later and total collapse — the collapse of death — in 1973." Out of the wreckage, Gen. Pinochet and his associates erected a sturdy, realistic political system, anchored in the most carefully-crafted constitution in the country's history, one still in effect today after 13 years of democratic rule by center-left governments. Like most charismatic, pioneering political figures, Allende was a complex man, steeped in democratic traditions, including 25 years in the rigorously democratic Senate, but persistently drawn to violent causes. In 1968, for example, he headed the Castro-backed Latin American Solidarity Organization, dedicated to the overthrow of democratic government. From the beginning, Allende's Chile became a magnet for revolutionaries from all corners of the globe; eventually their numbers grew to between 10,000 and 15,000. At his show trial in Havana in 1989, Cuban Gen. Patricio de la Guardia defended himself by citing his service in Allende's Chile, training clandestine military forces. Socialist Party congresses in 1965 and 1967 proclaimed that "revolutionary violence is inevitable and legitimate. Only by destroying the bureaucratic and military apparatus of the bourgeois state can the Socialist revolution be consolidated." In 1972 — two full years after Allende was elected — the Party proclaimed: "The bourgeois state is not suited for the construction of socialism; its destruction is necessary . . . we must conquer all power." By March of 1973, when the worst was yet to come, former president Eduardo Frei Montalva spoke of "this carnival of madness." He added: "Chile is in the throes of an economic disaster — not a crisis but a veritable catastrophe no one could foresee would happen so swiftly nor so totally. The hatred is worse than the inflation, the shortages, the economic disaster. There is anguish in Chile." Faced with illegal seizures of farms and factories, of defiance of judicial orders, unchecked street violence and death threats against the judges themselves, the Supreme Court warned on May 26, 1973, in a unanimous and unprecedented message, that Chile faced "a peremptory or imminent breakdown of legality." Three months later, on Aug. 22, the Chamber of Deputies — which had come within two votes of impeaching Allende — voted a resolution which said "it is a fact that this Government has been, from the very beginning, bent on the conquest of total power . . . so as to implant a totalitarian system." It was in that setting that Gen. Pinochet and the heads of the other armed forces acted, responding not to the craving for power typical of Latin caudillos, but to the clamor of a desperate people. Former President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla joined Frei and the third living president in thanking the military: "The Armed Forces have liberated us from the Marxist claws . . . the totalitarian apparatus which had been prepared to destroy us has itself been destroyed." After the coup, the radical left was still not going to give up. The military and the growing cadres of civilians who joined it had to take aim at underground terrorist forces. In that, they had expert help: French secret service agents who had waged France's savage war in the 1950s against Algerian independence forces coached secret police organizations in Chile — and also Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The man who headed Chile's secret police, Manuel Contreras, said recently that Gen. Paul Aussaresses, former head of the French intelligence service, personally trained Chilean agents in Brazil. In his monumental work, "Modern Times," historian Paul Johnson wrote that the French state terror units headed by Gen. Aussaresses "murdered and tortured prisoners, and on a wide scale. In this case, neither liberal France nor the international community raised a whimper of protest." Mr. Vial Correa, a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has written: "But I believe he [Gen. Pinochet] never imagined that in the feared DINA [the secret police], random abuse would be the rule, much less a rule so extreme and universally outside the law." Suppose Gen. Pinochet and his fellow commanders had not acted? Patricio Aylwin succeeded Gen. Pinochet as the first elected president and was among those imploring the military to act. A constant and acerbic critic in more recent years, he was in 1973 president of his Christian Democrat Party. He said then that if the military had not acted, Chile would have had to mourn the deaths of hundreds of thousands killed at the hands of Red brigades. He was far from alone in that judgment. Volodia Teitelboim, the chief ideologue of the Communist Party (who spent his entire exile preaching violence from the microphones of Radio Moscow), said a few months before the coup that if civil war came, "it probably would signify immense loss of human lives, between half a million and one million." On Sept. 11, because the military averted civil war, the actual death toll was under 200. Mr. Teitelboim was recently honored with Chile's National Literary award. Meanwhile, Gen. Pinochet, the man who saved the country, is every day vilified, ostracized. Abandoned even by his military colleagues, the 87-year-old general is supported by a small coterie of family and friends. But then, a Socialist president once again governs Chile. Mr. Whelan is an adjunct scholar at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, and former visiting professor at the University of Chile [12 September 2003]   CHINA . . see: "COMMUNISM" see "PLACES" for other related links After this notice is issued to instruct you villagers ... if there are any Christian converts, you ought to get rid of them quickly. The churches which belong to them should be unreservedly burned down. Everyone who intends to spare someone, or to disobey our order by concealing Christian converts, will be punished according to the regulation ... and he will be burned to death to prevent his impeding our program. --Boxer poster [1900] in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] p.687 Cohan & Major explain: The Boxers, a militant secret society, swore to defend the ruling Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty and to rid China of 'foreign devils'. They besieged the foreign legation compound in Beijing from May to Aug. 1900 but were crushed by an international expeditionary force. China was then compelled to make a huge financial indemnity, mortgaging its future for years to come. Boxer rebellion - Nothing and no one can destroy the Chinese people. They are relentless survivors. They are the oldest civilized people on earth. Their civilization passes through phases but its basic characteristics remain the same. They yield, they bend to the wind, but they do not break. --Pearl S. Buck (1892—1973) American author noted for her novels of life in China; winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature. _China, Past and Present_ [1972] In January 1952, [...] Mao ordered [a] campaign [...] called "the Five-Antis." The offences were bribery, tax evasion, pilfering state property, cheating and stealing economic information. It was aimed at private businessmen, whose property had not been confiscated, to force them to disgorge money, as well as to frighten them out of acts like bribery and tax evasion. One person involved at a high level put the number of suicides [...] as at least 200,000-300,000. In Shanghai so many people jumped from skyscrapers that they acquired the nickname "parachutes." One eyewitness wondered why people jumped into the street rather than into the river. The reason, he discovered, was that they wanted to safeguard their families: "If you jumped into the Huangpu River and were swept away so the Communists didn't have a corpse, they would accuse you of having escaped to Hong Kong, and your family would suffer. So the best way was to leap down to the street." --Jung Chang and Dan Halliday, _Mao: The Unknown Story_ [2005] - Frankly speaking it is difficult to trust the Chinese. Once bitten by a snake you feel suspicious when you see a piece of rope. --Dalai Lama [Lhama Thondup or Lhama Dhondrub] (1935— ) spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. (Dalai Lama is Mongolian for "Ocean of Wisdom") Attributed in 1981. - Much injustice has been done to China because of ignorance of Chinese conditions on the part of foreigners. Much misconception regarding things Chinese exists, and it is high time that definite steps should be taken by Chinese and others interested to bring to the attention of the world the existence of a great people with incalculable natural resources capable of bringing peace, prosperity, and happiness to mankind if properly developed and appreciated or curse and war to the world if misunderstood and mistreated. --Hin Wong, editor of the "Star of Canton" Speech to _Press Congress of the World_, Honolulu, Hawaii [1921] When I edged up to the subject he said "Nyet, nyet. You are a subtle man, you are trying to trap me into talking about China. They are our allies, our good relations," and here he stopped. I then said that without getting him "into the ally business, "I'd like to ask just one question: what did he think of the new communes, the centers of compulsory communal living that Mao Tse-tung was forcing upon China? With this, Khrushchev made possibly the most interesting statement of the whole interview. "They are old-fashioned, they are reactionary," he said of the communes. "We tried that right after the revolution. It just doesn't work. That system is not nearly so good as the state farms and the collective farms. "You know, Senator, what those communes are based on? They are based on that principle, 'From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.' You know that won't work. You can't get production without incentive." I felt as if I were about to fall out of my chair. Here was the leader of world Communism rejecting the very core of Marxist theory. It was as if I, a life-long Christian, had said that the Golden Rule just would not work. "That is rather capitalistic," I commented, speaking of his reference to the need for incentive. "Call it what you will," Khrushchev replied. "It works." Shortly afterward the Peking government announced that the further spread of the commune system was being slowed down. --Hubert H. Humphrey (1911—1978) 38th vice-president of the United States [1965—1969] and liberal senator [1949—1965 & 1971—1978]. Two lots of 500 and 1,000 men each were taken out and machine-gunned. Realizing that this was a waste of ammunition, the soldiers loaded the victims on boats, took them down the river below the city, and pushed them overboard in lots of ten or twelve men tied together. The slaughter continued for four or five days. --Jay Calvin Huston, an American eyewitness of the suppression of the communist insurrection in Canton, Dec. 1927. In M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 747. Cohan & Major explain: On Stalin's orders the Chinese communists staged urban risings against the Nationalist government, which were mercilessly put down. In Canton the insurgents wore red neckerchiefs. Although they quickly threw them away, the red dye stayed on their skin and marked them out for seizure. The executions by drowning bring to mind the nayades at Nantes by French revolutionaries in Dec. 1793. China is not, as is invariably said, in transition from communism to a freer and more democratic state. It is, instead, something we have never seen before: a maturing fascist regime. --Michael Ledeen Scholar of American foreign policy. I'd love to get you On a slow boat to China. All to myself alone. --Frank Loesser (1910—1969) American songwriter. "On a Slow Boat to China" [1948 song] If I were an Englishman, I should esteem the man who advised a war with China? There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! For when he wakes he will move the world. --Napoleon I (1769—1821) Emperor of France [1804—1815]. The defensive battle of the Chinese regime against faxes, e-mail and TV broadcasts from the capitalist world serves not only to keep it in power but also to keep at bay a different concept of society. Where television pictures from the world of universal commodities are still frowned upon, as in North Korea and some Islamic countries, photographs and detailed reports do the rounds instead. Even in Iran, where American heavy metal is the most popular music among middle-class teenagers, the Ayatollahs no longer have their sovereign air space under firm control. --_New Perspectives Quarterly_ [Fall 1995] p.3. The Chinese are a great and vital people who should not remain isolated from the international community. . . . It is certainly in our interest of peace and stability in Asia and the world, that we take what steps we can toward improved practical relations with Peking. --Richard Nixon (1913—1994) American Republican statesman, President [1969—1974]. First foreign policy report to Congress [February 1970]. Omnipresent amid all the frenzy of Shanghai is that famous portrait, that modern icon. The faintly smiling, bland, yet somehow threatening visage appears in brilliant hues on placards and posters, and is painted huge on the sides of buildings. Some call him a genius. Others blame him for the deaths of millions. There are those who say his military reputation is inflated, yet he conquered the mainland in short order. Yes, it's Colonel Sanders. --P.J. O'Rourke (1947— ) American political satirist. You shouldn't stay here too long, or you'll turn slitty-eyed. (Remark to British students in China.) --Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921— ) Consort of Queen Elizaberh II. - The following three quotes are from M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] pp 866-867: There is no sign of uneasiness among the British residents here. British businessmen mean to carry on unless physically forced to leave. They are confident that a communist government would find the cooperation of the British import merchants indispensable to keep up the standard of living among the Chinese population. --Ward Price, foreign correspondent of the "Daily Mail," Shanghai, Christmas 1948; in Noel Barber _The Fall of Shanghai_ [1979] p.150. & see: Three Chinese boys in long white gowns served cocktails, followed by a meal consisting of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and rhubarb pie. Not more than a hundred yards away a full orchestra of rifles and machine-guns was making so much noise that speech was frequently impossible. --David Middleditch, Shanghai [25 May 1949] The Brits keep up standards as the Chinese communists take over the city. & see: Have rejoined the Fleet. God save the King! --Lieutenant Commander John Kerans RN [31 July 1949]. Kerans brought the badly damaged frigate HMS Amethyst down the Yangtse past Chinese communist batteries in an exploit that was undoubtedly heroic but that signified the withdrawal of the British presence from China after more than a century of imperialist control. - I have seen the future of much of the Pacific Rim, and I am scared out of my mind. One quarter of the population of the planet, certainly about 1.2 billion Chinese, are about to transform their standard of living, and in the process, wreck a large proportion of the globe. --John Sergeant British architect. _Newsweek_ [9 May 1994], after taking a tour of the Far East. - Wu folk are excited when they give birth to a daughter, But it's not because they hope that she'll run a family house. They wash her young complexion in peachflower water, And pray at her young movements men's lust will be aroused. She's only aged eleven when she puts in rouge and powder, While at twelve she's coaxing tunes from silken strings. Her hair, at fourteen years, is tumbling down her shoulders And her moth's-antennae eyebrows can bewitch. Mama permits herself — a smile of satisfaction. She'll fetch a thousand — silver — to the ounce, When the highest class of customers come seeking her in marriage And do not spare expense to buy a beauty from the South ... The client is delighted. He observes to the mother, 'In no way can one reckon that a thousand is too much!' Let tonight become the night that decides a lifetime's love. How he piles the golden hairpins and the bangles up. And up! ... Off they go, then, unconcerned, with no feelings for their kin. Once a chick's become a grown-up, well — she makes her own way. Money is what matters. Flesh and blood mean nothing. For you, and me, and all of us, the mere thought of this is hateful. --Shao Changheng 'Selling a Daughter' (late 17th century) _Qing shiduo_ (Qing Bell of Poesy) - We want to be masters of our own destiny. We need no gods or emperors. We do not believe in the existence of any savior. We want to be masters of the world and not instruments used by autocrats to carry out their wild ambitions. We want a modern lifestyle and democracy for the people. Freedom and happiness are our sole objectives in accomplishing modernization. Without this fifth modernization all others are merely another promise. --Wei Jingsheng [January 1979] in James D. Seymour _The Fifth Modernization: China's Human Rights Movement 1978-1979_ [1980] p.50. (For these thoughts Wei was jailed for 15 years.) TOPICAL Public Opinion in China [15 June 2004] Editorial in the WSJ In most countries, a three-year suspended sentence simply for posting a few articles on the Internet would seem harsh to the point of draconian. But, in China, where numerous other cyber dissidents have gone to prison for up to 10 years, civil servant Du Daobin's relatively lenient sentence was a sign that public opinion is making it more difficult for Beijing to continue locking up Web protesters. We'd like to think that the strident international criticism, in these columns and elsewhere, of Mr. Du's detention last November played a part. But it's likely the more significant factor was an online petition signed by more than 1,000 Chinese, including prominent scholars and lawyers. This urged Beijing to stop using harsh anti-subversion laws to penalize people who peacefully criticize the government. It pointed out that Mr. Du hadn't broken any Chinese laws with his Web postings, which supported the struggle against repressive laws in Hong Kong and criticized the detention of another cyber dissident, Liu Di. That didn't stop a court from convicting him Friday of "subverting state power," after a 15-minute trial that was the usual travesty of justice, with Mr. Du and his lawyer prevented from saying a single word. But it did allow him to go home after the trial, albeit with a suspended sentence and on probation for the next four years, instead of being locked up alongside his fellow cyber dissidents. [ . . . ] end page | CALAMITIES - CALM | CALUMNY - CANADA | CANCER - CAN'T WIN | CAPITALISM | CAREFREE - CARPE DIEM | CARTER (JIMMY) - CATS & DOGS | CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - CENSORSHIP | CERTAINTY - CHANGE | CHANGING (ONE'S MIND) & CHANGING TIMES | CHARACTER | CHARACTER ASSASINATION - CHEERFULNESS | CHEER UP! - CHILDHOOD | CHILDREN | CHILDREN'S RHYME | CHILE & CHINA | CHOCOLATE - CHRISTIANITY | CHRISTMAS | CHURCH - CIGARS | CIRCUMSTANCES & CITIES | CIVILITY - CIVIL RIGHTS | CLARITY - CLICHES | CLOTHES - COFFEE | COLD - COLORS | COMEDY | COMFORT - COMMON SENSE | COMMUNICATION | COMMUNISM | COMPANIONSHIP - COMPASSION | COMPETITION - COMPLIMENTS | COMPOSERS - CONDUCTORS | CONFESSION - CONQUEST | CONSCIENCE - CONTENTED | CONTEXT - CONVERSATION | CONVICTION & COOKING | COOLIDGE - CORPORATIONS | CORRECTING - COURAGE | COURT - COWS | CREATIVITY - CRIME | CRIME & PUNISHMENT - CROOKS | CRITICISM & CRITICS | CROWD (THE) - CUBA | CULTURE - CYNICS | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos | |
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