Counterattack: Buckleys Pinochet Connection

By Jonathan Marshall Inquiry, July 9, 1979, 4-5 In its attack on Inquiry, National Review makes much of our supposed obsession with avenging the murder of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier. In doing so, it resurrects the old canard that Letelier was an agent of Cuban intelligence. That charge--based on a wholly imaginative reading of documents taken from Leteliers briefcase after his assassination--was long ago refuted by the Washington Post, the FBI, and federal prosecutor Eugene Propper. Their investigations have shown no evidence that Letelier received a nickel from the Cuban government. His funding came instead from the treasury of the Chilean Socialist party, controlled by Beatrice Allende (the daughter of Salvador Allende), who was exiled in Havana. The partys funds are raised mostly in Western Europe, from Chilean exiles, church and labor groups, and social democratic parties. Thats that. But the question remains: Why is the National Review still peddling such discredited rumors? The answer lies in the fact that even as the corpse of Chilean democracy was still warm, William Buckley was organizing a propaganda team to whitewash the new military dictatorship. On October 29, 1974, Buckley arranged a luncheon to bring together Chilean government officials with two of his close friends: Nena Ossa and Marvin Liebman. Ossa, a Chilean correspondent for National Review, became a prominent official in the juntas Cultural Department. Marvin Liebman, the veteran right-wing "public relations specialist," cofounded with Buckley numerous conservative propaganda organizations such as Young Americans for Freedom, and raised funds for National Review at its inception. Buckley, according to Justice Department documents, had recommended Liebman to the Chilean junta as a public relations consultant, and arranged the luncheon to permit Liebman to discuss ways in which he could serve the new military regime. Liebman, in turn, drafted a letter to Buckley outlining his proposals--a letter that Buckley passed on to Mario Arnello, a member of the Chilean mission to the United Nations. In his letter Liebman thanked Buckley "very much for inviting me to meet with your Chilean friends yesterday at lunch. The conversation was stimulating and informative." Liebman proposed setting up a public committee instead of a registered lobbyist for "counteracting the current image of Chile as a rightwing, despotic dictatorship." To Buckley and Arnello he admitted that the organization would be independent of the junta only "insofar as its public posture is concerned," and that contributions to it could be laundered through U.S.-based corporations. He further noted that in order to act "as advisers to the Chilean government on all matters relating to American public opinion," he would have "to have access at all times to the Chilean Ambassador or his designated aides." He concluded: "Because of our unique influence and knowledge of the American scene--particularly within the Conservative movement, from which the first strength for such a campaign must come--I believe that my organization can do as good a job for Chile as any other group in the country." Liebman soon won his way to Pinochets heart, and before long he was arranging for publication in the United States of articles favorable to the junta--some of them even supplied by Captain Charles Ashton, director of the juntas information service in Santiago. Whether Buckley accepted any of these planted articles is uncertain, but he regularly opened the pages of National Review to pro-junta writers, including Robert Moss, whose book Chiles Marxist Experiment was funded by the ClA. Indeed, another such author was Buckleys own brother, Reid, who was guided around Chile by Nena Ossa and conferred with Mario Arnello. Liebman also founded the American-Chilean Council, whose Chilean counterpart, the Consejo Chileno Norteamericano (CCNA), is headed by Nena Ossa. Aces newsletter claims that the council was "organized by private individuals" to counter the "Communist economic and propaganda offensive" against Chile. Its chairman pro tem, former ambassador to Spain and Argentina John Davis Lodge, is the

man who wrote in the New York Times: "If we could stop preaching, we might even be able to learn something from our friends in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile regarding how they have successfully handled and are handling the most cunning, cynical, vicious, brutal, relentless challenge of our time." (He was referring to communist subversion, not military despotism.) But is the American-Chilean Council, which Buckley did so much to get off the ground, really such a private affair? The Justice Department thought not, and charged Liebman and the Ace with filing "willfully false and misleading documents" disguising ACCs true relations with the Chilean junta. The Justice Department was able to show that the junta secretly passed funds to the ACO through Buckleys friend Mario Arnello, and that it provided "control and direction" to ACCS counterpart, Nena Ossas CCNA. And on May 31 a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that ace was in fact an illegal, unregistered lobby for Chiles military dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. The judge enjoined the Ace from engaging in any further propaganda activities. Given all this, it is hardly any surprise that Buckleys magazine rails at our effort to tell the truth about the military dictatorship in Chile and the assassination of its opponents abroad. For our part, we think thats a far more honorable endeavor than taking money to put a pleasant face on murder.