THE ALLENDE REGIME, 1970
A Scene of Chaos in Santiago
Swent: So you could buy all sorts of things- -houses, rugs, everything?
Haldeman: Yes. It was a scene of chaos. We had a house on Costanera
Street, the one you walked across today.
Swent: By the river?
Haldeman: Yes. In fact, it was just a couple of doors up from the street
you went up. I had bought the house. It had an 18,000-square-
foot lot, and I had 8,000 square feet of house, servants. I
paid U.S. $54,000 for it. Before the election I probably could
have sold it for U.S. $100,000. The election came and Allende
took over, and I figured, "I'm going to have to leave the
country sooner or later." A bill had gone to Congress for
expropriation of the mining companies. In February I sold the
house for U.S. $5,000. Four years ago they purchased it and
tore it down to put up a building. It went for U.S. $500,000.
People were panicking. You could have bought beautiful
homes. Some people did buy four, five, or six homes, and
they're millionaires today. They took a chance on it. It was a
gamble. Nobody had any faith whatsoever that we weren't going
to become another Cuba and Allende pledged that.
Index to Haldeman Interview
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