Salvador Allende

Salvador Isabelino del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean politician and member of the Socialist Party, and President of Chile from November 1970 up until his death during the 1973 coup.

By Salvador Allende

• "The answer is the proletariat. If it wasn't so I wouldn't be here [...] As for the bourgeois state, at the present moment, we are seeking to overcome it. To overthrow it. [...] Our objective is total, scientific, Marxist socialism" — In an interview with French journalist Regis Debray in 1970.

• "We already had success in creating a democratic, national government that is revolutionary and popular. That is how socialism begins, not with decrees." — Regis Debray interview.

• (Attributed) "I am not the president of all the Chileans. I am not a hypocrite that says so." — At a public rally, quoted by all Chilean newspapers, January 17, 1971. President Allende sent a public letter to El Mercurio newspaper to deny this alleged statement.

• "¡Viva Chile! ¡Viva el pueblo! ¡Vivan los trabajadores!" ("Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!") — last known words (in a radio broadcast on the morning of September 11, 1973)

• "I have been to Cuba many times. I have spoken many times with Fidel Castro and got to know Ernesto Guevara fairly well. I know of Cuba's struggle and its leaders. But the situation in Cuba is very different from that in Chile. Cuba came from a dictatorship; I arrived at the presidency after being senator for 25 years".http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20050427/pags/20050427210906.html From the same interview: "I have some experience and I am putting it to use in a Chilean way, for the problems of Chile. ... We are not here to colonize anybody's minds."

• "We start from different ideological positions. For you to be a Communist or a Socialist is to be totalitarian; for me no...On the contrary, I think Socialism frees man." — Quoted by the New York Times in 1970.

About Salvador Allende

• "Allende is seeking the totality of power, which means Communist tyranny disguised as the dictatorship of the proletariat." — Statement from the National Assembly of the Chilean Christian Democratic party, May 15, 1973.

• "Of all of the leaders in the region, we considered Allende the most inimical to our interests. He was vocally pro-Castro and opposed to the United States. His internal policies were a threat to Chilean democratic liberties and human rights." — Henry Kissinger, Years of Renewal.

• "The Popular Unity government represented the first attempt anywhere to build a genuinely democratic transition to socialism — a socialism that, owing to its origins, might be guided not by authoritarian bureaucracy, but by democratic self-rule." — North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) editorial, July 2003.

• "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." -Henry Kissinger*

Unsourced

• "This is an instrument in the hands of the people for fighting the fascist saboteurs, because the Chilean armed forces are a guarantee of constitutionality and integrity." http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/favourite/salvador_allende/this_is_an_instrument_in_the_25850

Category:Chileans

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