"Pobre Chile", says James Whelan

     James Whelan is an authority on Chile who participates vigorously and a length in the WAIS debate about what he calls "pobre Chile." Another long statement from him is reproduced in full in the Documents section of the WAIS home page. Written by an expert, it is clearly to be taken very seriously, but only a specialist can follow the details. It should be pointed out that some of the statements he citicizes were quoted, not made by me. I did say that, in my experience, those supporting the extradition of Pinochet were mainly academics, those defending him were people with practical experience in Chile. That is certainly true of the messages I receive from WAISers.
     Commenting on the academic left hand, business right hand of Chile watchers, Mr. Whelan mentions a resource I intend to investigate: the George Washington University Center tracking media and academic predelections.
     I wonder if this center keeps track of think tanks, most of which are financed by conservative businessmen. After all, the only think tank President Nixon wanted to blow up was the Brookings Institution, and that was established by a successful businessman, Robert Brookings, and its offense was that it was Democratic.
     From the WAIS perspective, it would be more important to compile the record of academics and the media in the different countries of the world, e.g. on the Israeli-Palestine dispute.
     Mr. Whelan is retreating to his intellectual Aconcagua to complete his new book on Chile. My confidence in his expertise is such that I can say in advance that every university library should have it, not to mention our more intellectual practical people.

Ronald Hilton - 05/02/99