Thousands of top secret documents which were declassified over the past five years have now been synthesized in a new book, The Pinochet File, by investigative reporter Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archives, a Washington-based investigative centre. \"The US created a climate of a coup in Chile, a situation of chaos and agitation,\" said Kornbluh. \"The CIA and state department were worried that the [Chilean] military ... were not ready for a coup.\"

The top secret documents accumulatively detail the crude workings of Washington during the Cold War. \"It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup,\" reads a CIA document from October 1970. \"It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG [US government] and American hand be well hidden.\"

Two days after this document was written, top CIA officials proposed a terrorist campaign to stun the Chilean people into accepting a military regime.

\"Concur giving tear gas cannisters and gas masks ... working on obtaining machine guns,\" reads a CIA memo dated October 18 1970.

\"Use good officers ... Some low-level overflights of Santiago and bomb drops in areas not likely to cause casualties could have great psychological effect and might swing balance as they have so many times in past in similar circumstances.\"

While conservative Chileans argue that the coup was a home-grown affair, the current Chilean minister of education, Sergio Bitar, says: \"That internal crisis was activated by the North American policies against it. We see how they energetically obstructed all types of credit from the World Bank and the InterAmerican Bank ... these were decisive actions. This were political and financial pressures that were very relevant [to the ensuing coup.]\"