The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

An interesting symposium. Mario Loyola reminds us that he did what "few dictators ever do: Upon losing by a small margin in a plebiscite that pitted him against the entire spectrum of political opposition, he resigned." The novelty of the dictator's resignation was obviously part of the reason that I kept forgetting he was still alive. But Otto Reich's portrait of Pinochet as a tragic figure strikes me as the best sum-up: "With some compassion and self-discipline, Pinochet could have been remembered as a liberator and not a despot. He was both."