Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup

John Dinges

Book cover for Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup
Book cover for Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup
Book cover for Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup
Book cover for Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup

Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup

Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup

John Dinges

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Description

Set against the romance of revolution and the terror of a military coup, this arresting mystery is also a reckoning with the callousness of U.S. foreign policy.

In 1972 two idealistic young Americans, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, arrived in Chile to participate in President Salvador Allende's socialist and democratic revolution. A year later they were secretly executed as Chile's military, with U.S. backing, deposed Allende. Following a sham investigation and cover-up, a Chilean defector leveled a stunning but ultimately false accusation: a CIA agent was in the room when one of the killings was ordered.

The defector's tale inspired the acclaimed 1982 film Missing and established U.S. involvement as the accepted narrative. But Chile in Their Hearts exposes the tale as a fabrication and leads us to a more intriguing reality. This book will force readers to rethink what they thought they knew about this infamous case. Renowned investigative journalist John Dinges scoured U.S. and Chilean archives and interviewed new witnesses to reveal the true story of the killings and the compelling adventure of the two Americans' lives against the backdrop of U.S. intervention in Chile.

About the Author

John Dinges lived in and reported from Chile during its most violent period (1972-78). A correspondent for the Washington Post, and later managing editor at NPR, he is Professor Emeritus of Journalism at Columbia University. His books include The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents.

Critical Reviews

"With his unique credibility on the topic, Dinges eschews ideological presumptions for a dogged, comprehensive investigation of the facts. His courageous findings debunk the conventional wisdom reflected and amplified by Missing: there is no evidence that the U.S. government was involved."-- "Foreign Affairs"

"Chile in Their Hearts reads like a nuanced crime novel that tells the story of soulless bureaucrats, hopeful revolutionaries and bloodthirsty fascists."-- "CounterPunch"

"Chile in Their Hearts may read like a true-crime novel . . . [yet] Dinges is quite convincing in criticizing US and Chilean investigators."-- "The Nation"

Publishing Information

Publisher: University of California Press
Pub date: 2025-04-29
Length: 287 pages

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