Special Senate Report and Public Hearing Exposed CIA Regime Change Operations; Initiated Needed Debate Over Role of Covert Operations in a Democracy
Archive Posts White House Documents on Ford Administration Efforts to Block Revelations of CIA Covert Operations in Chile
Published: Dec 4, 2025
Briefing Book #911
Washington D.C. December 4, 2025 – Fifty years ago today, Senator Frank Church convened the first public congressional hearing ever held on CIA covert operations to overthrow a foreign government, focusing on the case of Chile. His Senate Select Committee was taking this “unusual step,” Church explained, “because the committee believes the American people must know and be able to judge what was undertaken by their government in Chile. The nature and extent of the American role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Chilean government,” noted the Idaho Democrat, “are matters for deep and continuing public concern. This record must be set straight.”
Simultaneously, Church’s Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities released its groundbreaking and still relevant report, “Covert Action in Chile, 1963-1973.” Based on access to Top Secret CIA operational records, the unprecedented 62-page case study revealed that “covert United States involvement in Chile in the decade between 1963 and 1973 was extensive and continuous,” with the intent of blocking Socialist leader Salvador Allende from being elected president and, after he was elected, destabilizing his ability to govern. In considering future guidelines for covert operations, the report concluded that, “Given the costs of covert action, it should be resorted to only to counter severe threats to the national security of the United States. It is far from clear that that was the case in Chile.”
On the 50th anniversary of the hearing and the release of the report, the National Security Archive is posting a selection of previously declassified documents that record the efforts of the Ford administration to obstruct the Church Committee investigation and prevent an open hearing on the CIA’s role in overthrowing the Allende government. The congressional efforts 50 years ago fostered a full debate over the propriety of clandestine regime change efforts, and the Committee’s recommendations to tightly restrict such activities remain relevant today, as President Trump has authorized the CIA to engage in covert operations in Venezuela with the goal of deposing the government of Nicolas Maduro (..)
Para seguir leyendo:


