"Public Support is the Acid Test of Foreign Policy": Student Activism Protesting U.S. Cold War Imperialism in Chile

"Public Support is the Acid Test of Foreign Policy": Student Activism Protesting U.S. Cold War Imperialism in Chile

Student activism against Cold War interventionism

On March 22, 1984 former secretary of state Henry Kissinger spoke outside of the LBJ school of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. This flyer promotes a protest that was held in response to Henry Kissinger’s foreign policies during the Nixon administration. He is depicted wearing a ring engraved with the words “Wall Street” representing the influence that multinational corporations have historically had on U.S. foreign policy. Kissinger and the Nixon presidency are intimately tied to the military junta that ruled Chile from 1973-1990. While both initially denied involvement in the overthrow of democratically elected President Salvador Allende, government documents later released revealed that the CIA did play a significant role in the 1973 Chilean coup d’état. Additionally, while Kissinger had suggested that a socialist government in Latin America presented a national security threat to the United States, released documents disclosed that he did not believe that Allende’s Chile posed a true threat, suggesting economic motivations as represented by the flyer.

Flyer promoting protest at the University of Texas at Austin reading “Public support is the acid test of foreign policy.” March, 1984. Box 4x220a folder: “Chile and Latin America Solidarity ½ (leaflets, clippings, and other), A Guide to the Alice Embree Papers 1962-2013. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

March 1984

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Qureshi, Lubna Z.. Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende : U.S. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile, Lexington Books, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/lib/utxa/detail.action?docID=467313.

paper 8.5x11 in.

English

flyer

The University of Texas at Austin