KISSINGER: The CIA had nothing to do with the coup to the best of my knowledge and belief, and I only put in that qualification in case some madman appears down there who without instructions talked to somebody. I have absolutely no reason to suppose it. [Deleted.]

McGEE: The intimation has been rather strong from some quarters that our economic policies contributed directly to the collapse of the Allende regime, that is, cutting off credits with the Western Hemisphere Bank and a few other programs like that.

KISSINGER: Well, first of all, it is incorrect to say that we cut off the credit. Most of the credits that were cut off were cut off as the result of the basic policies of the Allende government. Mr. [Robert] McNamara [head of the World Bank and former U.S. secretary of defense] gave a speech or a press statement last summer in which he explained that the World Bank does not extend credit if there is an expropriation without compensation, if the economic policies of the country do not make it a good credit risk, and a third reason which I have now forgotten.

Second, the export-import credits were cut off after Chile defaulted on the loans that it had already had, and the bilateral aid was affected by the Hickenlooper amendment.

It is one of the curious aspects, however, of the way economic aid is given that by defaulting on its debt payments a country can, in effect get its economic aid indefinitely. Rescheduling $250 million worth of Chile's debts over the last two years had the same practical effect as giving it $250 million in economic aid, in addition to the fact that it got $85 million in disbursements from existing multilateral loans that had been approved prior to the shut down of credit. And I think it got about $25 million of humanitarian aid from the United States during the period of the Allende government. Therefore, I think that the judgement of the New York Times editorial yesterday is correct that it was the policies of the Allende government, its insistence on forcing the pace beyond what the traffic woyld bear much more than our policies that contributed to their economic chaos. [Deleted.]

I was going to say, Senator McGee, that the political parties did not know anything about this coup, to our knowledge, and I do not have the impression that there was any organized labor support for it.

McGEE: It was only the protests from the working group types, indcluding the basic political groups that supported Allende as well as those who were opposed to him?

KISSINGER: That is my impression.