Salvador Allende’s government was doomed from the beginning. It was the time of the Cold War, and the United States would not allow a leftist experiment to succeed in what Henry Kissinger called “its backyard.” The Cuban Revolution was enough; no other socialist project would be tolerated, even if it was the result of a democratic election. On September 11,1973, a military coup ended a century of democratic tradition in Chile and started the long reign of General Augusto Pinochet.
