This book is an indictment of the policies of the United States government and business community toward Salvador Allende’s Chile. Its fundamental assertion is that United States business monopolies, especially the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, with the enthusiastic aid of the CIA, masterminded and initiated the coup against Allende’s government. Additionally, it blames the United States economic and political system for continuing to support the “fascist” government under Pinochet that has existed in Chile since the 1973 coup.
While Sergeyev’s intent is clearly tendentious, the rigorous documentation throughout much of the book makes it clear that the author has done his research carefully, if not entirely objectively. His sources include United States government documents (used extensively), Philip Agee (Inside the Company), Anthony Sampson (The Sovereign State of ITT), Jack Anderson, the Washington Post, and the New York Times among others, with Soviet and Western Marxist sources appearing in the minority by far. As a result, Sergeyev’s presentation of material is not to be faulted; indeed, much of what he writes has become generally accepted in Western countries, and there is little in it that is even potentially controversial.