33 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
33 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Business & Finance"
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tags:
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- Person
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- DonaldKendall
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- PepsiCo
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- RichardNixon
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- Chile
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- AgustinEdwards
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- ProjectFUBELT
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alias:
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- Donald M. Kendall
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- Don Kendall
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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."
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location: "New York"
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created: 2026-09-21
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updated: 2026-09-21
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---
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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]
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### September 1970
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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]
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### The Perjury Inquiry
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"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]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House*. Summit Books, 1983, pp. 260, 268, 270, 273.
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[^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.
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