---
category: "Business & Finance"
tags:
  - Person
  - DonaldKendall
  - PepsiCo
  - RichardNixon
  - Chile
  - AgustinEdwards
  - ProjectFUBELT
alias:
  - Donald M. Kendall
  - Don Kendall
summary: "Chairman of PepsiCo and benefactor of Richard Nixon who in September 1970 brought the Chilean publisher Agustín Edwards to the president's men the day before Nixon ordered a coup, and was later investigated for perjury."
location: "New York"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
---

Donald M. Kendall was chairman and chief executive of [[PepsiCo]], "which had extensive business activities in [[Latin America]]," and sat on the executive committee of the [[Business Group for Latin America]], organized in 1963 by [[David Rockefeller]] "at the express request of President Kennedy." He was one of those described as the "corporate benefactors" of [[Richard Nixon]].[^1]

### September 1970

After [[Salvador Allende]]'s plurality on September 4, 1970, the publisher of [[El Mercurio]], [[Agustin Edwards|Agustín Edwards]], "flew within days to see Donald Kendall in Washington, who immediately hired him as a PepsiCo vice president and invited him to be a house guest." On September 14, by [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]]'s account, Kendall saw Nixon privately, "a meeting that, like many others, did not appear on Nixon's daily log." The next morning Kissinger and Attorney General [[John Mitchell]], "at Nixon's direction, had breakfast with Kendall and Edwards." [[Richard Helms]] met the two at a Washington hotel, where they "appealed passionately for CIA help in blocking Allende." That afternoon Nixon ordered Helms to prevent Allende from taking office. Helms testified: "I have this impression that the President called this meeting where I have my handwritten notes because of Edwards' presence in Washington and what he heard from Kendall about what Edwards was saying about conditions in Chile."[^1][^2]

### The Perjury Inquiry

"As late as December 1977, according to [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] documents made public under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], potential defendants in the case included not only [[Harold Geneen]] but two other corporate leaders, [[C. Jay Parkinson]] and Donald Kendall," each "under investigation on felony charges for perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy" over their statements on [[Chile]]. "Parkinson and Kendall also escaped indictment."[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House*. Summit Books, 1983, pp. 260, 268, 270, 273.
[^2]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,* interim report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975, quoting Helms's testimony of July 15, 1975.