a. Chile’s
Once tensions with the Soviet Union and China eased, Nixon's foreign policy entailed choosing allies based on practical rather than ideological considerations. Criticized both by conservatives for abandoning the fight against communism and by liberals for supporting autocratic regimes, Kissinger continued to support quiet interventions and covert operations to prop up any government that seemed friendly to an immediate American interest. The United States relied on regional allies such as Iran, Israel, Zaire, South Africa, and Japan to help stop the spread of communism but did not interfere in the domestic affairs of friendly nations. When a socialist government came to power in Chile in 1970, however, Nixon's new posture was tested. Fearing communism's spread to the rest of Latin America, Nixon authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to help undermine the democratically elected regime of Salvador Allende and had Kissinger funnel arms to Allende's opponents. Three years later, Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile in a military coup. Pinochet's brutal dictatorship would last for two decades, far longer than the U.S. administration that had helped bring it about.