Memo: Nixon, Brazil dictator discussed bid to overthrow Castro, Allende

n 1971, President Richard Nixon and Brazil's military dictator discussed coordinating efforts to help Cubans and Chileans overthrow Fidel Castro and Salvador Allende respectively, according to a recently declassified White House memo on their meeting.

Gen. Emilio Garrastazú Médici first raised the issue of helping anti-Castro Cubans.

``These men claimed that they had forces and could overthrow Castro's regime. The question arose, should we help them,'' said the memo written by national security advisor Henry Kissinger.

Nixon ``pondered this question and said he felt we should, as long as we did not push them into doing something that we could not support, and as long as our hand did not appear,'' the document noted. Médici agreed, it added.

Kissinger's account of the Dec. 9, 1971, White House visit by Médici was written ``for the president's file'' and classified Top Secret. It was declassified Sept. 4, 2008, and made public in July as part of a State Department publication on U.S. foreign policy.

The National Security Archive (NSA), a private research institute in Washington, posted the memo and related documents Sunday on its website, www.nsarchive.org.

The rightist Médici, who ruled Brazil from 1969 to 1974, died in 1985. Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal and died in 1994.

Chile's leftist President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a bloody 1973 military coup backed by Washington.

Kissinger's memo shows it was Nixon who raised the subject of Allende during the meeting, asking for Médici's views on Chile: ``Médici said Allende would be overthrown . . . then asked whether thought that the Chilean armed forces were capable of overthrowing Allende . . . Médici replied that he felt that they were . . . and made clear that Brazil was working towards this end.''

SUPPORT OFFERED

Nixon noted that ``if the Brazilians felt there was something we could do to be helpful in this area, he would like to let him know. If money were required or other discreet aid, we might be able to make it available,'' the memo added.

``This should be held in the greatest confidence. But we must try and prevent new Allendes and Castros and try where possible to reverse these trends,'' Nixon noted. Médici ``said he was happy to see that the Brazilian and American positions . . . were so close.''

Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive, said that while some details of Brazil's support for the Chile coup were previously known, the Kissinger memo amounts to a ``candid document that reveals collusion and conspiracy.'' He added that he knew of no evidence of Médici cooperation with anti-Castro Cubans, and the Kissinger memo makes no mention of any actual agreements.

OTHER CUBA ISSUES

The memo notes Nixon and Médici also discussed two other Cuba issues -- its readmission to the Organization of the American States and a possible change in U.S. policy toward Havana after Nixon had reestablished relations with China.

After initial pleasantries, Nixon ``said that there was one area in which he wanted to make his position quite clear . . . as a result of change in our policy vis-a-vis China. . . . there were some rumors . . . that there was going to be a change in our policy towards Cuba,'' Kissinger wrote. ``This was absolutely not the case.''

For his part, Médici noted that Peru was trying to persuade the OAS to consider readmitting Cuba and asked Nixon how they should cooperate to oppose the move. Nixon said he would study the issue and reply to Médici ``privately.'' The OAS voted to lift sanctions on Cuba in 1974.

Kornbluh said that since the memo shows Nixon and Médici agreed to set up a secret back-channel for further contacts on sensitive issues such as Cuba and Chile, Brazil should open its military archives so that historians might follow the trail.

``The secret back-channel of communications between these two presidents could yield some smoking guns on the hidden history of covert intervention in South America,'' Kornbluh said.