Any Reputable Sources on this? I’ve heard it before but haven’t seen much evidence.
A definitive source on the background events for all this is Edgardo Boeninger. He was a friend and compatriot of Eduardo Frei (Allende's Christian Democratic predecessor). He can directly quote a whole slew of centrist moderates who were directly involved, and thus attest that they condemned Allende and supported the request to the military to remove him from power. (There is a Dutch academic translation of Boeninger's
Democracia en Chile, but I'm not aware of an English translation.)
Key detail here is that Boeninger, Frei, and many of their alllies subsequently became opponents of Pinochet as well. They're not apoloists for his clear abuses. They just set the record straight, dispelling the socialist myth of Allende-the-hero-of-democracy.
Anyway, the facts are clear. On 26 May 1973, the Supreme Court of Chile unanimously denounced the Allende government's disruption of the rule of law. This included a slew of violations of the Constitution, and a continual refusal to permit police execution of judicial decisions contrary to the government's measures or interests. The Supreme Court called upon the military to uphold the Constitution, as per the military's oath.
At the end of July, there was a general strike that included the copper miners of El Teniente. This strike was illegally and violently suppressed, making it clear even to many moderate supporters that Allende's talk of standing up for the common man was pure fabrication.
On 22 August, the Chamber of Deputies passed a resolution condemning Allende's many crimes and abuses. The text of the Chamber of Deputies' resolution is
literally on wiki. This passed 81 to 47, I think. So a clear Democratic majority was opposed to Allende's abuses, nor was it purely the right wing that wanted him gone. As to the main points.... The Chamber of Deputies accused the government of:
-- unconstitutionally refusing to enact constitutional amendments, already approved by the Chamber, which would have prevented his government from continuing its massive (and illegal) nationalisation plan
-- seeking to "conquer absolute power with the obvious purpose of subjecting all citizens to the strictest political and economic control by the State... [with] the goal of establishing... a totalitarian system"
-- violating the constitution not just incidentally, but as "a permanent system of conduct"
-- utter disregard for the separation of powers
-- ruling by decree, thus subverting the legislative branch altogether
-- refusing to enforce judicial decisions against left-wing terrorists, and generally just not carrying out sentences and judicial resolutions that went against Alende's objectives
-- illegally ignoring the decrees of the independent General Comptroller's Office
-- usurping the National Television Network for propaganda purposes, violating the neutrality of the state media that was decreed by law
-- applying illegal economic pressure against privately-owned media organisations that were not unconditional supporters of the government
-- forming socialist paramilitary units that were "headed towards a confrontation with the armed forces"
-- generally allowing socialist activists to freely carry arms, while depriving right-wing activists of arms
-- attempts to co-opt the police and military via "notorious attempts to use the armed and police forces for partisan ends, destroy their institutional hierarchy, and politically infiltrate their ranks"
-- fostering the illegal seizure of over 1500 farms
-- illegally and violently suppressing the El Teniente miners' strike
-- illegally putting restrictions on emigration, thus keeping the population trapped, East Germany style
The resolution instructed Allende to put an immediate end to these breaches of the Constitutios, "
with the goal of redirecting government activity toward the path of law and ensuring the Constitutional order of our Nation, and the essential underpinnings of democratic co-existence among Chileans". Furthermore, the Chamber of Deputies joined in the earlier plea by the Supreme Court for the military to uphold its oath to the Constitution -- and to remove from power any government that persists in subverting it. (It is crucial to note that this would not be a coup, but a constitutional duty. Pinochet, contrary to left-wing agitation, was never at fault for removing Allende. He was at fault for
not subsequently relinquishing power himself.)
Personally the figure I’d see doing this would have to be Huey Long. Man was an authoritarian Little tyrant who appealed to all sorts of people and could of Theoretically got elected in the absence of FDR (not that FDR saved the nation, more that he kept his coalition out of the hands of people like Long). Cue him being a banana tyrant in the making, cue MacArthur or somebody deciding now is the time to stop him and save the Country. Mac won’t be the dictator openly, but he will damn well push around the new president. Also expect lots and lots of riots, with resulting counter strikes and the establishment reacting with Mass Murder… now just have good ole J Edgar codify it, and you get a very repressive US state, although still probably at least pretending to be a democracy.
Yup. No FDR and someone like Long seizing power would probably do the trick.
Im sorry,No.The Holocaust was committed because of centuries of built up anti semitism, culminating in the sickness of Nazism, whose mania about the Jews was central to their ideology. Also the Jews were only the first part see the entirety of General Plan Ost. Now the Nazis certainly got into Power because of the Soviets being right there, but there evil was not in any way the impetus behind the Holocaust save for the Anti Semitic canard of communists being Jews and the like, while of course also believing in Judeo capitalism
True.
I think what
@WolfBear did indeed mean to convey that the Nazis only ever came into power because Germany was a basket-case teetering on the edge of communist revolution for a while there. Loads of people only supported the Nazis because they saw the communists to be the greater evil. (Indeed, the expected the Nazis to be like the Italian fascists, who were near-universally considered a far lesser evil than the USSR throughout the 1920.)