Thirty years ago, Chile's elected government was overthrown by a military coup. While most of the world remembers Sept. 11 as the day that marked the beginning of the war on terror, Chileans commemorate the end of a presidency and the cleaving of their country into two, as yet irreconcilable, halves.
Salvador Allende, a socialist, was elected president of Chile in 1970. Although he won just 36 percent of the popular vote, his administration turned its back on the center and embraced a radical socialist agenda to accelerate down the "peaceful road to democratic socialism." Allende's government adopted a Marxist program of land expropriation and nationalization of industry. The country's economy soon collapsed, and the military, fearing a communist takeover and with Washington's support, launched a coup.
On Sept. 11, 1973, air forces and ground troops attacked the presidential palace. While under siege, Allende delivered a speech to the Chilean people and then either shot himself with a machine gun given to him by Fidel Castro or was murdered. The three years of Allende's presidency became one of the most bitterly disputed periods in Latin American history.