This is the first of an occasional series of posts about undeserving icons promoted by the left.
As I've commented elsewhere, I am deeply troubled by the way in which the left manages to command the political vocabulary and resurrect those who really ought to stay down (Che Guevara, Michael Foot, Neil bluddy Kinnock), whilst trampling on those who we ought to be lifting up, but really rather neglect (Thatcher and - on this side of the pond, at least, Reagan, and so on).
If you feel this way, and if you're the one righty in the pub sticking up for capitalism and freedom and liberty whilst your lefty mates rail against the USA etcetera, then you are very familiar with Salvador Allende of Chile - since his is the first name thrown out in the modern apologist variant of repression justification, which goes "well, even if the Soviets were worse, the USA and the CIA were really bad too". You'll be told that Allenda was whiter than white, was knocked over by a corrupt and despotic USA which liked to meddle in entirely innocent Latin America, and sooooo ooooon.
So it will be useful to know that Allende was in the pay of the KGB, won't it? As revealed by the Mitrokhin papers, which were smuggled out by the KGB's senior archivist and written about by Cambridge University's Christopher Andrew, we now know that
[KGB] relations with President Allende of Chile... began in 1953 and were elevated to "systematic contact" after 1961. During his years of power meetings were often arranged through his favourite mistress, along with sex films and associated cavortings. On one occasion he was personally given $30,000 in order to solidify trusted relations.
It's a quote from the Telegraph coverage of the publication of the Mitrokhin papers, which you can read in full here. It's a shame they don't get more coverage - the things they reveal are interesting, no..?
If you have suggestions as to future subjects for discussion, please drop me a line.
