Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen

From the Confessions of a DINA hit man to the monster of the mainstream, here are this week’s top picks in imperial and global history.

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The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified:
Confessions of a DINA Hit Man

Peter Kornbluh and John Dinges
National Security Archive

“[I]f there has been sufficient reason to open this envelope, I accuse the government of Chile of my death,” wrote DINA agent Michael Townley in March 1978, as FBI agents pursued him for the September 1976 car bomb assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt in Washington, D.C. If Townley himself were found murdered, he wrote, his superior, General Manuel Contreras, the commander of Chile’s Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), should be considered the “intellectual author.” Townley also identified a team of DINA assassins—his own colleagues—as the people likely to have committed the hypothetical crime of his own killing.

Titled “Confession and Accusation,” the document is one of several detailed reports from Townley on DINA’s criminality published as a collection for the first time today by the National Security Archive—45 years after they were written. Townley drafted these dramatic admissions as a calculated and desperate effort to deter his DINA superiors from attempting to permanently silence him rather than turn him over to U.S. authorities. [continue reading]

How Ridley Scott’s Napoleon Stacks Up Against the French Emperor’s Real Story

Olivia B. Waxman
Time

Ridley Scott’s biopic Napoleon, in which Joaquin Phoenix plays the French emperor, hits theaters on Nov. 22. The film tracks Napoleon’s rise to fame during the French Revolution, delves deep into his lifelong love for his wife Josephine, and depicts his most famous military battles, culminating in his epic defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

The movie is a work of historical fiction, but Scott’s team worked to ensure that at least some details are historically accurate. Michael Broers, an author of several books on Napoleon who attended script meetings for the film, spoke to TIME about what the movie gets right and wrong about the legendary leader and debunks some of the most common misconceptions about him. 

Below, Broers gives the inside scoop on the conversations with Scott about the scene in which Napoleon shoots down the Pyramids, opens up about the one part of the movie he most objects to, and breaks down the accuracy of the “Napoleon complex.” [continue reading]

Israel’s Sharpeville moment

Steven Friedman
Africa is a Country

he Israeli state is fond of telling anyone who will listen that it is now living through its very own “9/11.” It is, in truth, living through its own Sharpeville. There are important differences between the killing of anti-apartheid protestors by police in 1960 and today’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza. But the impact on the state responsible for the bloodshed may be much the same. And that is a possibility that should deeply worry those who are now turning Gaza into a wasteland.

The events that began on October 7 were different from Sharpeville in important ways. Sharpeville, and the banning of “liberation” movements that followed it, began armed resistance to apartheid. In Palestine, armed conflict between the occupying power and the occupied is decades old. Sharpeville, despite the justifiable horror it caused across the globe, was not an attempt to punish an entire people—it was directed only at those who protested. Gazans would, no doubt, give a great deal for a world in which they had to raise a banner or shout a slogan to be killed or driven from their homes. [continue reading]

Monster of the mainstream

Quinn Slobodian
New Statesman

Argentina has just elected a self-described anarcho-capitalist to be their next president. Commentary and reaction to the result will make Javier Milei seem like a monster. In many ways, the former economist, 53, has encouraged this depiction himself. His AC/DC haircut, chainsaw wielding at rallies, and newly acquired pin-up girlfriend intentionally provoke norms of moderation and the decency expected, in some quarters, of respectable politicians. His turns as Captain Ancap at comic conventions, clad in leotards and carrying a trident, further deepen this impression.

But there are two reasons why it would be wrong to fall too much for Milei’s self-presentation. The first is that it follows too closely the script he has written for himself, a script that has ended at the presidential palace and one that many of his followers celebrate. The parallel between Milei and Donald Trump is strained in terms of policy but when it comes to telegenic buoyancy of hair and glee at tweaking bourgeois norms, the similarities are clear. (In a low-energy show of support, the former US president congratulated Milei on his effort to “Make Argentina Great Again”.) [continue reading]