Firing Line had looked closely at Chile just after Salvador Allende was elected

President (#220, in 1970), and just after the coup in which he died (#S154, in 1974). Mr. Birns is convinced that we have since seen, to quote the title of his book, The End of Chilean Democracy; indeed, he maintains that "in terms of the brutality and level of repression that now exists in both countries, I would say that Chile ... is more repressive than Cuba"--prompting Mr. Buckley to catechize Mrs. Ossa on what you can and can't do in Pinochet's Chile. The plus column includes moving freely about the country, leaving the country "with no red tape," criticizing the government, attending church, and "invit[ing] Milton Friedman to go down and lecture and say what he wants to and deplore tyrannical systems ... Can you do that in Cuba? No. Well, how are we doing?" Miss Geyer adds this fascinating bit of background on Salvador Allende, the hero of democracy: "I remember I interviewed [Allende] in '64 .. . And my last question to him was, 'Senator Allende, if you are elected president'--and he wasn't of course, then--but

'if you were elected president, how soon would you initiate a one-party state?' And he said, in these exact words, 'Not immediately.' He said, 'That would take a few years.' "