Between 1970-1973, against the backdrop of a brief period of détente in the Cold War, the government of Salvador Allende figured as a model case for the multilateral potential of international financial institutions—especially the IMF—and for the contradictions implied in the relationship between these institutions and the governments of developing countries. The Unidad Popular administration played a “two-tier game” in its position vis-à-vis the International Financial System and its institutions, aided in part by the geopolitical scenario and in part by Allende’s efforts to pursue a financial diplomacy that was both technical and committed to national interests.