Missing
(Original title: The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice)
Thomas Hauser
254 pages
published in 1978

This book will make you angry. Especially if you're an USAnian and believe in the ideals on which your country was founded. Why? Because this book documents how the US government was not only involved in the 1973 Chilean coup which brought Pinochet to power, but how they condoned the killing of an American student, Charles Horman who had stumbled upon evidence of this involvement.

Some background information first. In 1970, Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile. A socialist, he started a series of economical and social reforms aimed at eradicating the grinding inequality between the small elite who possesed most of the country's wealth and the great mass of people who lived in poverty. This did not sit well with the US government of that time, especially not with Henry Kissinger, then assistant to President Nixon and one of the more powerful members of his government.

From 1970 onwards, directly after Allende had won the presidental elections the US government started a campaign of destabilisation against Chile. It had already interfered in the Chilean elections by sponsoring anti-Allende propaganda to stop him from being elected. When this didn't work, other means were sought to stop him. The US could not and would not tolerate a Marxist regime in their backgarden, even if it was democratically elected.

At first there was no real possibility of a successfull coup d'etat against Allende: Chile had a strong democratic tradition and an army unwilling to meddle in politics. Like in any healthy democracy, individuals may have regretted an Allende regime, but still abided by the democratic process. The US set out to change this. The first victim of this policy was general Schneider, the commander in chief of the Chilean army, who was murdered by a US backed group little less then a month after Allende had won the elections. This was followed by Washington tightening the economic screws on Chile, for instance by cutting off development aid to the country and by the courting and build up of anti Allende forces amongst the wealthy landowners, industrial barons and the army. It took three years, but on 11 september 1973 the coup got underway. Amongst the thousands of innocent people killed during it, Charles Horman was one.

Charles and his wife Joyce had fallen in love with the country when they got there at the end of an eight month trip through South America, so much so they decided to stay. they settled in the capital, Santiago. That was in 1972. They worked on various art projects, as well as on a non profit newspaper.

Just before the coup took place, one of their US friends, Terry Simon came over. At that point things were already in turmoil, but nobody suspected something big was going to happen. The day before the coup, Terry and Charles went to Vina del Mar, on Chile's Pacific coast. It was when they were there that the coup started. Terry and Charles were now trpped in Vina, but they were not the only ones. They became acquainted with one Arthur Creter, a militairy consultant and Pat Ryan, head of the US navy section in Valparaiso, where the Chilean Navy was also headquartered. From them, Charles learned of the US involvement in the coup.

After a few fitful days, Charles and Terry got back to Santiago and Joyce and they decided to leave the country as soon as possible. While Joyce and Terry were busy preparing for this, getting visa and tickets, Charles went to his home, just when a group of soldiers showed up as well. His neighbours saw Charles being taken into a truck and disappear. From eyewitness acounts of other Americans and Chileans later, it turned out that he was then taken to the football stadium in Santiago, the new regime's ad hoc prison, torture chamber and execution square. He was probably tortured and then killed.

For Joyce and Terry, there now begun a long nightmare of insecurity, of not knowning what had happened to Charles. They called for the help of the US embassy and other authorities in Chile, but got no cooperation whatsoever until Charles father came from the US to find out what had happened to his son. In his opinion, the US Embassy and US military staff in Chile had known what had happened to charles and had deliberately put him in the hands of the coupists, because he knew too much about their involvement in it.

This short description above only inadequately summarises the content of this book; it is well researched and detailised. Thomas Hauser manages to stay factual and sober yet with an undertone of barely surpressed anger at what happened. Missing should be required reading for everybody who cannot understand why anybody would doubt the noble intentions of the US in its new "War on Terror".