The Dictator's Shadow
Life Under Augusto Pinochet
Book - 2008
Augusto Pinochet was the most important Third World dictator of the Cold War, and perhaps the most ruthless. In The Dictator's Shadow , United Nations Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz takes advantage of his unmatched set of perspectives,as a former revolutionary who fought the Pinochet regime, as a respected scholar, and as a diplomat,to tell what this extraordinary figure meant to Chile, the United States, and the world. Pinochet's American backers saw his regime as a bulwark against Communism his nation was a testing ground for U.S.-inspired economic theories. Countries desiring World Bank support were told to emulate Pinochet's free-market policies, and Chile's government pension even inspired President George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. The other baggage,the assassinations, tortures, people thrown out of airplanes, mass murders of political prisoners,was simply the price to be paid for building a modern state. But the questions raised by Pinochet's rule still remain: Are such dictators somehow necessary? Horrifying but also inspiring, The Dictator's Shadow is a unique tale of how geopolitical rivalries can profoundly affect everyday life.
Publisher:
New York : Basic Books, c2008
ISBN:
9780465002504
0465002501
0465002501
Characteristics:
xiii, 345 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm


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Add a CommentThe verbiage in the description is utterly chilling: // The other baggage--the assassinations, tortures, people thrown out of airplanes, mass murders of political prisoners--was simply the price to be paid for building a modern state. But the questions raised by Pinochet's rule still remain: Are such dictators somehow necessary? \\ The types of death-by-torture [there were specialized torture centers with horrendously varying tortures] were beyond imagining - - and by a modern state, the sociopath means a Milton Friedmanesque looney tunes economy for the oligarchs. Thousands tortured to death, and many disappeared by being flown out to sea by helicoper, having their stomachs first slit open so their bodies wouldn't float, then tossed out to drown or be eaten by the sharks! A somewhat understated book of horror. [FYI: The economy was taking off under Salvador Allende, something too many psychos fail to mention, plus President Allende's adoption of the first peer-to-peer network [Project Cybersyn by Stanford Beer et al.] to connect sectors of their economy!]