Eagles of the Andes, a Chile wank TL

It’s been a while since I updated, but here is the beginning of a new year. Still looking for a beta reader, if anyone’s interested please give me a PM I know I have issues with grammar… and I know I’m missing one hell of a lot of mistakes when I try to proof read this on my own. Secondly if anyone is still interested in this TL, should I keep with the style of a yearly over view and then vignettes that flesh out the outline or should I switch to pure vignettes, or alternately should I go back to my original plan to run through the buildup and then only go to vignettes once I hit the Latin American war? As always comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
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Nineteen seventy one was a tumultuous year in Chilean Politics. The left, incensed by their loss at the ballet box and by President Jorge Alessandri’s ambitious armament program at the expense of expanded social programs, launched a series of general strikes. The left leaning members of the governing coalition declined to participate but a combination of the Communist party and Socialist party were more than enough to rouse the campesino’s and their urban underclass companions for massed action. Of course with their weakness in both the Chamber of deputies and the Senate this was regarded as the only option that they had for expressing their displeasure with the governing coalition’s actions. It was also widely regarded as a desperation move as their strikes hurt the two parties almost as much as they helped.

On top of the lefts declining popularity the assassination of Edmundo Pérez Zujovic resulted in a sharp response from both the government. The governmental response was swift and brutal, thirteen dead leftist militants was the result. Those militants were implicitly linked through evidence gathered in their homes to the MIR party, and the Allende family. The brutality of the Chilean response was noted internationally, but it was accepted as it was seen to work. A minor thing that was to have far ranging implications even as the Chilean political and police establishment struggled to get a handle on police violence. The police violence issue was considered to be of lesser importance then getting a handle on the political violence potential that both the right and left were expressing. The government felt that allowing the police to crack down hard on the political violence was more important than restraining the police. Although the negative effects of this policy, and the blame for the police violence would rest squarely on the Alessandri administrations shoulders, it was a policy that was credited with saving the republic.

Alessandri took the opportunity that was provided by the lefts fumble to gain some support from the lefts base in order to keep both the Radicals and Christian Democrats in the coalition as well as undermine the Socialists and Communists. He also wanted to neutralize the radical lefts ability to paralyze the country by calling for general strikes by breaking their political relevance. Given that both Bolivia and Peru were nominally under leftist regimes he was worried about the military implications of the discontent beyond its potential to destabilize the country. So he went looking for a program that he could sell to his base as well as use to draw the lefts voting base away from the socialists and communists. He was handed it in education by the Christian Democrats, as they were worried about the loss of their base to the Communist Socialist alliance. A comprehensive overhaul of the educational system to compliment his raising of the educational budget looked good to all sides and was easy enough to pass. To his base he could sell the changes as long term economic stimulus, a move he cleverly made easier when he attached the educational reforms to the Agricultural reform bill. The nineteen sixty five reforms had just gotten up to steam, and despite their cost were widely popular.

Many thought that the Bill would fail as it rolled back the Christian Democrats program of expropriation, a program that had been wildly popular with the campesinos. The bill wasn’t limited to just rolling back the Fries era land reforms in favor of Alessandris, it also formed a government bureau of appellation controlee, but that was ignored despite its eventual importance to the nation as the main thrust of the debate concentrated on the expropriation issue. Land had been a problem in Chilean politics for years, and would continue to be one. Many regarded this as a direct strike against the campesino population, and several left leaning papers accused the government of joining in on the war against the poor. Even some of the Christian Democrats and Radicals voiced their discontent and made noises about bringing down the government in conjunction with the Christian Left.

Alessandri had thought of that though, and had included support for several alternate industries with an eye to move the campesino population into economic prosperity. He was able to stand up in the media and loudly proclaim that he was attempting to fix the issue through alternate solutions as the expropriations hadn’t done anything for the campesinos. Aquaculture and its related fields were a very large part of this program, as were incentives for campesino’s to move to the south and settle in the fords there. Specifically Turbot and Mollusk farming got the lion’s share of the support. Salmon, trout, and Tilapia farms were not forgotten in the program as they represented the traditional aqua cultural crops. The president campaigned hard for the bill, pointing out that this was a sector in which Chile could take the lead in, and one where the campesinos could rise to be rich on their own merits. After all, he asked the public repeatedly over the radio, on television, and in their daily paper what other country had invested in this new frontier of agriculture. Chile would become a world leader.

The message was one that was taken up loudly by the young economists trained in the United States. While not entirely happy with public money being spent to prop up private enterprise the use of public funds to stimulate growth in new industries rather than on ‘collectivist nightmares’ like the northern copper mines or the Syndics was something that they supported publicly. They also were instrumental in getting American dollars for various projects through USAID and other economic development agencies. The outside funding that these young men procured was a godsend to the beleaguered Chilean president. He was able to point to the matching funds grants and loans as a clear sign that the under capitalization which had plagued all prior land reform bills wasn’t an issue this time. Being able to point to this money was the reason why the bill passed, it is very likely that without something concrete to point to Alessandri would not have been able to muster the votes that he needed despite his nominal super majority. As it was the fight over the bill cost him the support of Luis Pareto González who was ousted from his position as president of the senate by his own party in favor of Patricio Aylwin Azócar. The bill turned out to be the political fight of the year, and debate rage on it for the better part of six months before it passed. The debate would continue over the next two years, although it would be muted as Alessandri had won his point.

The debate also overshadowed economic and technological cooperation with the state of Israel brought on by cooperation over military purchases, and the deportation of Walter Rauff to Israel, and extending from military and technical cooperation deeply into the civilian sector. In fact the Israeli winery Carmel acquired its new Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc grape stock from Chile. Contact with the Israeli vintners and their ideas about wines ended up sparking off a major revolution in the aging and storage of wines in Chile. Raulli Beachwood barrels began to lose their popularity in favor of stainless steel and Oak, a process that would take years, and culminate with Chilean wines being considered among the best in the world. Although the traditional Raulli Beachwood aged wines would remain a delicacy they would never be an export item. This was the first bi lateral foreign trade initiative and its success, modest thought it was, would set the tone for how the Alessandri presidency would do business on the international stage. Instead of an import substitution based economy Alessandri was looking for an export based one, along the model adopted by South Korea and Japan.

In keeping with this shift in economic policy Alessandri and his foreign secretary chose to move their focus to the east rather than the traditional focus on Europe and the United States. They reasoned that the European markets were saturated and that competition would kill any of the hoped for growth. Diplomatically things were even worse, when you dealt with Europe you didn’t just deal with one country but an interlocked web of treaties and agreements. It was the administrations thought that Asia with its emerging markets and recently decolonized nations would be more receptive to Chilean initiatives. Talks were initiated across Asia but the most progress was felt to be with Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and South Vietnam. All of which were viewed as either underserved, in the case of New Zealand and Australia, or emerging markets. While most of the talks lead nowhere investment dollars were obtained from Vietnamese big wigs, and the Koreans agreed to a series of joint military exercises in the next year. Small deals were inked with all of the countries on the list over agricultural products but most of those deals were more about establishing precedent and getting Chilean feet in the door then they were real money makers.

Just about the only major deal was a deal between Banco del Estado de Chile and several Vietnamese banks. The Chileans needed to recapitalize due to the new policy of farm improvement loans going to the campesino’s while the Vietnamese wanted a secure shelter for their money. Most of the Vietnamese elite were looking for secure places to stash their cash, and banks with the ability to store your money out of country were sought after. It was a boon for native Viet banks as they retained their business, while the Chileans benefited from a growth in the banking sector.

Diplomatically these initiatives did little more than raise the international profile of Chile. The country was in no position to do more. It was hoped that in time Chile would find receptive partners and be able to move in major ways diplomatically but with their anemic looking military, and low international profile that was viewed as something that would occur in the future. Still Chilean diplomats did favors where they could and generally tried to grow a reputation as an honest broker.

Closer to home the Brazilian government approached the Chileans through the good offices of Embraer. The Brazilians were well aware that Chile was interested in creating its own aerospace industry, if only so that it could upgrade its planes on its own. The Brazilians proposed a joint partnership to buy into the Lockheed Corporation as a partner and begin producing their own native built airliner. The Chileans were hesitant at first, but after a lighting round of talks with the British government (Whose bailout of Rolls Royce was critical to the success or failure of the Tri-Star project) the Chileans agreed and spun off ENAER from the air force. As a public private company one of its first missions would be to buy the air force hangers it was using as a production facilities. Armed with the support of the British government the Brazilians and the Chileans approached Lockheed.

Lockheed management were well aware of just how close to blowing it they were. The entire project was stalled, and they were facing bankruptcy because of it. The joint Brazilian/Chilean offer was a godsend for the corporation. Not only were the two South American companies willing to put much need cash into the project they were bringing in orders. As they were national companies they were able to convince their respective governments to buy their product for the national air lines. Lockheed went from having an almost failed project to one that was on the verge of success. Of course neither the Brazilians nor the Chileans were happy with a single engine source, they both invested the time and effort need to see if a TriStar could be fitted with a CF6 engine. Lost in the background of the fight over land tenure reforms, diplomatic moves, and the formation of a government aviation corporation was the annual military procurement budget announcement.

The Chilean Navies acquisition of the HMS Eagle (Or as she was to be renamed the Capitan Prat), even if it would not be delivered for another two or three years might have been ignored in country but was not ignored out of country. Argentina and Peru both protested loudly to the United Kingdom about maintaining the balance of power in the region but their protests were ignored. Newly elected Prime Minister Edward Heath was not about to endanger such a large order for British ships, and the jobs that would entail. The Chilean navy was buying heavily British and along with the carrier they had picked up two type 42 destroyers and five Condell class frigates. Not only were these orders generating jobs they were also passing savings on to the government as increasing the production run of the type forty two destroyer and the type twelve frigates decreased their cost per unit. This was of course on top of the Chilean orders for the British F-4J Phantom IIs and Blackburn Buccaneers.

On top of this sound financial reason for refusing to scupper the deal the Peruvian objection was insulting to the British government. It was based on the balancing provisions of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, an act that was American and the very provisos that Peru was using as the basis for its objection it was busy violating in its quest to acquire the HNLMS De Ruyter from the Netherlands. The general tone and what was said in the diplomatic protest was almost enough to get the Peruvian ambassador declared persona non grata.

The only country whose objection could scupper the deal was supremely uninterested. The United States Navy regarded the Eagle and other conventionally power carriers as relics of the past. The Eagle might have been a fleet carrier, and as such an unusual ship to leave the confines of the first world, but it was just another British cast off being bought up by a second rate nation. It was unusual the amount of work that the Chileans were asking the British to put into their new toy, but it was to be expected. After all no Chilean yard could do the work. The second issue was that for all its expertise the Chilean navy had never operated a carrier before. Everyone knew that carrier operations were a specialized field in which most navies failed. After all of the nations which operated carriers only three regularly used them; and all of them were first world NATO partners. If the Chilean navy wanted to saddle itself with an outdated white elephant for pride that was perfectly acceptable to the United States.

Additional ties to Britain were forged when the British ambassador to Uruguay was kidnapped by the Tupamaro guerrillas. MI-6 brought perennial presidential hopeful Salvatore Allendes connection to the movement to the Chilean intelligence agencies attention in the hopes that they could use him as a go between in negotiating for the release of their ambassador. This revelation caused panic and triggered a long running investigation of Allende and his foreign connections. Especially as it came hot on the heel’s of the MIR crisis. The investigation would eventually see him imprisoned. Followed by being turned over to the CIA, and through the CIA the Argentinians, to be tortured and murdered. In the short term the Chilean intelligence agency reached out to the Uruguayan military and received clearance for the British to deploy the famed SAS on Uruguayan soil.

On August 12 Chilean intelligence operatives located the people’s prison in which Geoffrey Jackson and ten other hostages were held. Three days later while the Uruguayan army launched a frontal assault on the Tupamaro’s the SAS squadron snuck in the back of the people’s prison and freed the hostages. The operation was widely hailed as a prime example of international cooperation, and gained Chile brownie points with England.
 
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