Chilean Presidential Election of 1970
Salvador Allende won a 36.6 percent plurality confirmed by Congress, a Cold War turning point.
Overview
On September 4, 1970, Salvador Allende, a Marxist running for the fourth time, won a 36.6 percent plurality over conservative Jorge Alessandri's 35.3 and Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomic's 28. Congress, by tradition, confirmed the plurality winner after Alessandri conceded. Allende's peaceful road to socialism, including nationalization of copper, polarized Chile and the world, with US hostility documented in later declassifications. The September 11, 1973 coup and Allende's death ended the experiment, making 1970 the century's most debated case of a Marxist winning a free election.
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