Mistaken Identity

Nobody in Chile has ever taken the five year-old Nacista party very seriously except the Nacistas. The Nacistas take everything seriously. Last week the Nacista Congress at Santiago was very grave about a serious mistake everybody (except the Nacistas) had made for a long time--namely, confusing the word Nacista with the word Nazi. The latter, they said has horrid meanings; Nacista has the most innocent root in the world-- "birth."

Apparently the whole thing was a mistake from the beginning. Chile's party, said the Congress, was not in the least like Germany's. True, one of the three Nacista members of the Chamber of Deputies is part German. Admittedly, the party supported storm troops. There was no denying that members occasionally wore greyish-brown shirts and overseas caps. Indeed, they did go about saluting each other with raised arms. Sometimes it is a fact, they drilled. Yes, they once took to the streets to fight the Communists. No good Nacista would deny that he was fanatically nationalistic. There was even a bare possibility that the word Nacista was derived from the party's original full name, Movimiento Nacional Socialista. Nazi came from National Socialist Party.

But no, said the Congress, the whole thing was a mistake. Chile's party was as unlike Germany's as a sickle is unlike a swastika. The world must remember that 15,000 Nacistas helped elect Chile's Popular Front President Pedro Aguirre Cerda last October. Henceforth the party name was to be Popular Socialist Vanguard. It would advocate: 1) nationalization of copper, nitrate, iron industries, electricity, railroads (all but the last largely U. S.-owned); 2) creation of a State-owned bank and merchant marine; 3) housing for Chile's underpaid workers. Having thus clarified a world-wide misunderstanding--all based on the meaning of one little word--the newly born Vanguardians heaved a serious sigh and adjourned.

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