Former AP editor recalls covering 1973 Chile coup

[dipsydoodle]

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- For days, rumors had spread that a coup was imminent. The date chosen by the military and their supporters was the 11th of September.

That Tuesday in 1973, I arrived very early to The Associated Press bureau, not knowing that a military state of siege would keep me from returning home for four days.

Salvador Allende also rushed to arrive early at the government palace, La Moneda. I watched the presidential caravan pass below our office window, and spotted the car that carried Chile's first Marxist president.

This was the time of radio, and channels crackled with announcements. While the coup was led by army Gen. Augusto Pinochet, official word came from Adm. Jose Toribio Merino, who announced at 8:30 a.m. that the navy had risen up against the government. Then someone read a proclamation that it was led by the commanders in chief of the four armed forces - the army, navy, air force and the military police, or "caribineros."

"In the face of a grievous economic, social and moral crisis," the proclamation said, the armed forces "are united to initiate the historic and responsible mission of liberating the people from the Marxist yoke."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_CHILE_COUP_ANNIVERSARY_FIRST_DAYS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-10-03-04-58

[dogknob]

1. We shouldn't forget what the terrorists did on 9/11/73

But after that, they bought all of our media to make sure that we do...