It is a restless morning in the city of Santiago, the capital of Chile. However this day, September 11, 1973, will go down not just as restless but as a major focal point of U.S. foreign policy. For weeks, the right wing Chilean Congress has opposed the policies of the socialist President Salvador Allende. As a part of this, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger have openly advocated for economic warfare on Chile. However, very few know what will happen as a result of the United States’ involvement. At the Presidential Palace, more commonly known as La Moneda, President Salvador Allende is in essence no longer in control of anything. By 7 a.m. a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet begins as the army begins seizing the coastal cities and the Air Force begins bombing all radio and television stations. By mid-morning, after several attempts to convince Allende to resign, Pinochet orders tanks and troops to storm La Moneda as well as fighter-bombers to destroy the building. By 2:30 p.m. Allende had died at age 65 and the military was in full control of the government.

What followed were years of the brutal repression on the part of the Pinochet dictatorship as the number of people killed is unknown. Many have long criticized the United States for its involvement in another nations affairs. However, I believe that today we have swung too far to the other side of the spectrum. Today, because of the lack of proper use of foreign leverage, democracy across the world is in retreat and the people of the world may be seeing the darkest hour of freedom then at any time since 1940.

Many may remember the Arab Spring of 2011, when people all over the Arab world rose up to resist the dictatorships that had come to power during the Cold War and for a while it looked like there was a good chance that this region would have a golden opportunity for both peace and freedom unlike any it had seen before. However, flash forward to 2014 and there is a much different story. The Muslim Brotherhood had by and large spoiled the democratizing political process in Egypt and Tunisia and in Libya, the fall of Muammar Ghaddafi had not been properly managed, thus the nation had/has largely fallen into chaos. Most of all, lest we forget the ongoing civil war in Syria in which the depraved despot Bashar Al-Assad has killed thousands of his own people.

There are many on both sides of the political spectrum that say US intervention has only produced more problems and that we must return to our policy of non-interference (that worked out great, see WWI, WWII, Cuban Missile Crisis, Afghan-Soviet war, Rwandan Genocide, etc.)

To clarify, am I advocating that the United States be the “world’s policeman?" No. Such a task would be well beyond our capabilities. What I am advocating is that this time in history should be remembered as the return of democratic self-government. As Winston Churchill once said, “Freedom is not a matter of choice, it is a destined path, an undying yearning for the peace of one's soul until attainment.”