The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2023

12 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL and initiation of collective bargaining negotiations leading to implementation of due process procedures. Macomber and Mace refused to negotiate, but they instituted a morato- rium as a way to block litigation. When State eventually lifted the moratorium, Bittman and Miller brought suit on behalf of several selected-out officers. In 1973, U.S. District Court Judge Gerhard Gesell ruled in Lindsay v. Kissinger that State’s regulations were “constitutionally defective,” that Foreign Service officers are “entitled to more than a conclusory form of notice,” and that selection-out requires a “fair hearing” and “procedural safeguards.” As Naland observes, AFSA supported the suit with an amicus brief and thereaf- ter played an important role in decisions to create the FSGB. Bruce Gregory Civil Service employee, retired Washington, D.C. Setting the Record Straight on Chile September 11, 2023, will mark 50 years since the coup that overturned the government of Salvador Allende of Chile. Most Americans, and indeed most of the world, believe that the United States played a significant role in the under- mining and overturning of Dr. Allende’s government. In actuality, the United States played a totally honorable role during the years of President Allende’s rule, and I am writing because the occasion of the anniversary of the coup may give our government an opportunity to set the record straight. The esteem in which our country is held might benefit from a correct knowledge of the events of those years. In 1973 it was easy to believe that the government of President Richard Nixon and his colleague Henry Kissinger would have been guilty of covert CIA activity to weaken and end the rule of an avowedly communist-socialist govern- ment. Indeed, in 1970, such plans were considered by the Nixon administration, and investigations by the U.S. Senate in 1975 revealed them. A subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee did a thorough investigation of those years in Chile, in 1975, under the chairmanship of Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho). Their findings are summarized in The Last Two Years of Salvador Allende, a history of the period written by my late husband, Nathaniel Davis, who was ambassador to Chile (1971-1973). As the hearings drew to a close, Senator Church made this comment (page 331): “As the chairman of the Senate Com- mittee which investigated the Chilean affair, I wish to state for the record that Nathaniel Davis never appeared to have actively engaged in covert efforts to subvert the elected government of Chile. Rather, the available evidence suggested that Davis opposed such a conspiracy and sought to maintain a correct rela- tionship with the Chilean regime.” Even with the findings of the Senate committee, there was not much inclina- tion by anyone to defend the policies of President Nixon, who was by then out of office and disgraced. There were exten- sive attempts to find documents to verify the beliefs of Dr. Allende’s supporters, but they were without success, and I have been assured that all documents that could be procured using the Freedom of Information Act have been investigated. I will close with a story that has given me pleasure over the years. The chief administrative assistant during the Senate investigation was a young man Share your thoughts about this month’s issue. Submit letters to the editor: journal@afsa.org named Greg Treverton. As the investiga- tion was closing, Greg took my husband aside and said, “When we began the investigation, we thought that you were the ‘bad guy,’ the cowboy in the black hat. Now that we have finished, we realize that you were the cowboy in the white hat.” Elizabeth C. Davis Wife of FSO Nathaniel Davis Pomona, California DEIA in Practice It’s hard to applaud an obituary, especially one that so intensely reflects overwhelming grief [Mohammad Ali Alnajadah, In Memory, November 2022 FSJ , page 74] . But AFSA’s publication of the loss of a Foreign Service officer’s same-sex partner shows the world that America practices the inclusive equality we preach. I.G. Smyer RLA/USAID, retired Seattle, Washington n