Comprehension Test on the Movement of Ideas and a Taste of Calculus s1

Comprehension Test -- Defeat of a Dictator - Chile 1983

Your answer must be in complete sentences. Use proper English grammar and spelling. Penmanship, grammar and spelling will count in your grade.

1. In the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, Al Gore won 500,000 more votes than George W. Bush. However, Mr. Bush became President. In 1992, Bill Clinton, although he won more votes than any other candidate, became President when 57% of the voters wanted someone else. In 2005, Tony Blair was reelected Prime Minister of Britain with only 36% of the vote. A whopping 64% of the British electorate wanted Blair out of office. Why were these election victories in democratic countries accepted (though grudgingly in some quarters) but the military coup by Pinochet was roundly condemned as antidemocratic?

2. (a) Where is Chile located? (b) The Chilean coastline borders on the ______ocean. (c) What is the most striking thing about the geography of Chile?

3. Why did the U.S. support the 1983 coup by which General Pinochet came to power?

4. In the context of the Cold War should the U.S. have permitted a Marxist/socialist government to remain in power in Chile in 1973? In 1987, while it was still fighting the Cold War, should the U.S. have allowed the plebiscite to follow its normal course and refrained from giving aid to the Concertación?

5. Was it a good result or a bad result that the Chilean dictator, Pinochet, and his right wing and militarist allies retained an inordinate amount of power in the decades after they were defeated in the plebiscite?