CHILE

I arrived in Santiago with a newspaper fellowship in early 1970---the year Salvador Allende, a Socialist, was elected president as the candidate of the Unidad Popular, a left-of-center coalition of strange bedfellows, including the Communist Party.

The first year's drama was widespread: a cabinet bent on bringing a lawful revolution to areas like health care, education and land ownership; a renaissance of revolutionary art and music--and graffiti; the nationalization of U.S. mining interests. And the angry marches down Santiago's broad avenues.

Sadly, the revolution soon began to falter, in no small measure from international monetary restrictions pressed by the U.S.

I left Chile after the (heavily monitored) congressional elections of 1973. Allende's coalition won an honest majority. I returned home and did a long radio piece for ABC forecasting that he would barely stumble across the finish line of his six-year term. He didn't come close.