Augusto Pinochet was the most important Third World dictator of the Cold War, and perhaps the most ruthless. InThe Dictator's Shadow, United Nations Ambassador Heraldo Munoz takes advantage of his unmatched set of perspectivesas a former revolutionary who fought the Pinochet regime, as a respected scholar, and as a diplomatto tell what this extraordinary figure meant to Chile, the United States, and the world.Pinochet's American backers saw his regime as a bulwark against Communism; his nation was a testing ground for U.S.-inspired economic theories. Countries desiring World Bank support were told to emulate Pinochet's free-market policies, and Chile's government pension even inspired President George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. The other baggagethe assassinations, tortures, people thrown out of airplanes, mass murders of political prisonerswas simply the price to be paid for building a modern state. But the questions raised by Pinochet's rule still remain: Are such dictators somehow necessary?Horrifying but also inspiring,The Dictator's Shadowis a unique tale of how geopolitical rivalries can profoundly affect everyday life.