Falcoff placed his piece in Commentary, where it ran in November 2003 under the headline "Kissinger and Chile: The Myth That Will Not Die."
In it, he quotes from the Kissinger transcripts -- or rather, he misquotes them.
It is a Sept. 16, 1973, chat between Kissinger and Nixon, discussing the anti-Allende coup that occurred five days earlier. The actual telephone transcript reads:
Nixon: "Well, we didn't -- as you know -- our hand doesn't show on this one though."
Kissinger: "We didn't do it. I mean we helped them. ________ created the conditions as great as possible."
But Falcoff ended Kissinger's quote at "We didn't do it."
Falcoff, who had seen the full quote, said he was not trying to alter history, not trying to create a myth of his own.
"I made a mistake," he said when asked repeatedly. "I should have put that part of the quote in the article. I should have done that."