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The White Bones Of Allende

Tom Paxton
Language: English


Tom Paxton

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[1976]
Album “New Songs from the Briarpatch” (1977)

broadside 137


Testo pubblicato su Broadside Magazine n.137 dell’ottobre/dicembre 1977.

Il commento che segue il testo della canzone pubblicato su Broadside Magazine ci ricorda i nomi dei mandanti del golpe in Cile nel 1973:

The Forces working against Allende

It is september 1970. Salvador Allende has been elected president of Chile – it is several months until will be sworn it. The intrigue, actually planned for in anticipation of his winning the election, begins in earnest. In Washington DC, William K. Merriam [?] is meeting with William V. Broe, head of Clandestine Operations for Latin America for the CIA. Broe suggests a coordinated plan of economic sabotage and social unrest. ITT Company offers one million dollars to the Agency for any operation which will stop Allende from assuming the presidency. Kissinger reads the memo. John A. McCone, now an executive of ITT and formerly the director of CIA, goes to meet with Kissinger to discuss the ITT proposal. Piece by piece the economic blockade of Chile is being constructed. The foregoing means the US realized the danger of marxism in Chile: so fought it with grants and loans. The state department and AID admitted in public congressional hearings that “Chile is the country of major US assistance emphasis because of its important political role in the hemisphere.” They continued the hearing by saying the liberal US loan policy is justified because they were putting the money in there to fight marxism.
You are flying to Vienna, you have phones aboard your airplane.
You sit at oaken tables and you speak in solemn tones.
While the leaders of all nations keep a deep respectful silence,
You're moving pawns and bishops made of flesh and blood and bone.
But the white bones of Allende and the scattered bones of Chile
Are the scream that breaks the silence of the thousands blown away.
Yes, the white bones of Allende and the scattered bones of Chile
Are not silent, they are screaming, they're your Peace Prize, Doctor K.


While you banter with reporters, while you charm your fellow diners,
While you dance with wives of princes, while you rest from cares of state,
There are thousands in the prisons, there are widows numb with sorrow,
There are graves unmarked and hidden, there are ghosts outside your gate.
And the white bones of Allende and the scattered bones of Chile
Are the scream that breaks the silence of the thousands blown away.
Yes, the white bones of Allende and the scattered bones of Chile
Are not silent, they are screaming, they're your Peace Prize, Doctor K.


For it's Kissinger in China, it's Kissinger in Cairo
and it’s Kissinger at NATO in the grand old power game.
But the white bones of Allende tell another, darker story,
For you never got to Chile, but you killed it just the same.
Yes, the white bones of Allende and the scattered bones of Chile
Are the scream that breaks the silence of the thousands blown away.
Yes, the white bones of Allende and the scattered bones of Chile
Are not silent, they are screaming, they're your Peace Prize, Doctor K.

Contributed by Alessandro - 2009/6/9 - 09:27




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