ABSTRACT
The Allende period and its violent end are controversial to this day. There are diverse opinions as to what the roots of the coup were. Many of the early accounts were highly partisan statements that reflected the political divisions within Chilean society.1 These conclusions tended to be judgments on Allende and the people who guided politics from 1970 to 1973. Even today in Chile the debate about the Allende period persists, as supporters and opponents of the Pinochet years try either to justify the period of military rule or to discredit it.
