Reflection: A Look Back......
....."The situation regarding the Argentinian invasion of Chile had been escalating for less than two years since it was revealed that Pinochet had backed the unsuccessful coup attempt against Mrs. Peron's government. Following a long dragged-out bloodbath between the Peronist government and rebel forces which were led by Videla, etc., the Peronist government not only crushed the coup plotters and their rebel troops, but the government forces launched airstrikes and the like: killing Videla, Massera in the process while Galiteri, Viola and Bignone were arrested and imprisoned for their insurrection plots against the Argentinian government.
It was then once those eager-beaver idiots in the Associated Press included those bozos in the Washington Post leaked out that the Rockefeller administration and the Central Intelligence Agency was also involved in the botched coup attempt, these revelations enraged Mrs. Peron, who vowed vengeance against those who plotted to undermine her government and she was going to name names. Rumor was that a rogue element of the Argentinian government systematically rigged the 1976 US Presidential election in favor of then-California Governor Jerry Brown, whom many considered a novice on foreign policy and someone to exploit. I strongly disagreed with these allegations because I NEVER thought these allegations were anything but distractions because the election was fair and Jerry Brown won the presidential election fair and square. They wanted to aggressively undermine then-Vice President Edward W. Brooke's presidential campaign, so the Peronist government hired former Nazi intelligence officials to use derogatory coded messages and other vicious methods sabotaging Brooke's campaign in the critical swing battleground states, which proved successful, especially once Texas decided the 1976 Presidential election in Brown's favor very narrowly.
Now the events which led to the Invasion of Chile had been about the disputed islands consisting of Lennox, Picton and Nueva. I believe what that crazy astrologer freak Lopez Rega, the man who was running the Peronist government from Madrid, Spain in the first place, was to undermine the Chilean government with the goal of toppling it altogether. Once Mrs. Peron aggressively and viciously scrubbed the Argentine High Forces Command and replaced opponents with Peronist allies including cronies in all branches: Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force, she ordered a deployment of somewhere between 29,000-57,000 military personnel troops toward the Chilean border in what the Argentinian Foreign Affairs Ministry described as "military exercise drills", but the Chileans and everyone knew better.
With the Brown administration proposing diplomacy efforts in attempts of resolving an escalating situation from spiraling out of control between the two rival South American nations, neither Chile or Argentina were interested in diplomacy or any peace agreements regarding the disputed islands because any alternative approaches were considered hopeless. What was also odd was that Bolivia abruptly cut diplomatic ties with Chile just days before the onset of the Invasion. I found that one quite disturbing and to this day, couldn't grasp why the Bolivians did that.
In the meantime in Buenos Aires, Mrs. Peron had her eyes set on Chile and she was very much in tune with what was being said about her in other countries, and the ongoing debate in Brazil, where Brazilian President Ernesto Geisel referred to her as "That Nightclud Dancing Bitch" outraged her, to the point she finally gave the green-light for the Argentinian High Forces Command to invade Chile------while we were all asleep here in the States at that------she also opened her arms to Bolivian, Cuban and Soviet volunteers, anyone who wanted to cleanse Chile of what she called "That CIA Puppet Jackass" in reference to Pinochet, who was backed by the Nixon, Ford and Rockefeller administrations. In her view, she was hell-bent to getting rid of Pinochet and anyone who supported him. No matter what we tried to do, the Argentinian Foreign Affairs Minister told Secretary Mondale that "Argentina will do whatever is necessary to taking what is ours and doing everything in our power to defending ourselves by any means necessary!" I just couldn't believe we were caught flat-footed like this and almost immediately, the criticism ranging upon us from both sides of the political aisle was like a sneak attack. Sadly whatever favorable ratings that the Brown administration was hoping for regard to the Cuban State Visit, Argentina State Visit and the trips to Venezuela, Brazil, Nigeria and Liberia, pretty much evaporated overnight once Mrs. Peron launched the invasion into Chile. It was all downhill for the Brown administration afterwards which pretty much killed any chance of President Brown getting reelected in 1980."
-Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew J. Young (D-GA)
*Interview with ABC News; April 8th, 2004
Member, US House of Representatives from GA's 5th Congressional District (Janaury 3rd, 1973-March 3rd, 1977)
14th US Ambassador to the United Nations (March 3rd, 1977-September 23rd, 1979)
55th Mayor of Atlanta, GA (January 4th, 1982 to January 2nd, 1990)