---
alias:
- Donald M. Kendall
- Don Kendall
category: Other
created: 2026-09-21
location: New York
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.
tags:
- Person
- DonaldKendall
- PepsiCo
- RichardNixon
- Chile
- AgustinEdwards
- ProjectFUBELT
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](/people/david-rockefeller/) "at the express request of President Kennedy." He was one of those described as the "corporate benefactors" of [Richard Nixon](/people/richard-nixon/).[^1]

### September 1970

After [Salvador Allende](/people/salvador-allende/)'s plurality on September 4, 1970, the publisher of [El Mercurio](/organizations/el-mercurio/), [Agustín Edwards](/people/agustin-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 Kissinger](/people/henry-a-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](/people/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 [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/) documents made public under the [Freedom of Information Act](/events/freedom-of-information-act/), potential defendants in the case included not only [Harold Geneen](/people/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](/places/chile/). "Parkinson and Kendall also escaped indictment."[^1]

[^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.