[ Charles Horman was a 30-year-old American free-lance journalist in Chile during the 1973 coup. He had inadvertently been given sensitive information about U.S. involvement in the coup while chatting with a U.S. Navy engineer, which could have led to his secret arrest and execution. The efforts of his family to find him were met with foot-dragging or worse at the U.S. embassy in Santiago. In 1982 the movie Missing, directed by Costa-Gavras and starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, was released by Universal, based on a book by Thomas Houser. Nathaniel Davis, U.S. ambassador to Chile from 1971-73, filed a $150 million libel suit against the studio, even though he wasn't directly named in the movie. The book, however, uses real names throughout and is even more convincing than this excellent movie. Nathaniel Davis is now a professor of humanities at Harvey Mudd College, one of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California. Charles Horman, on the other hand, is still dead. ]

Horman Document, p.1

DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Washington, D.C.

August 25, 1976

TO: ARA [American Republic Affairs] - Mr. Shlaudeman

THROUGH: ARA - Ambassador Ryan

FROM: ARA/BC - R.V. Fimbres / R.S. Driscoll / W.V. Robertson

SUBJECT: Charles Horman Case.

This case remains bothersome. The connotations for the Executive are not good. In the Hill, academic community, the press, and the Horman family the intimations are of negligence on our part, or worse, complicity in Horman's death. (While the focus of this memo is on Horman, the same applies to the case of Frank Teruggi.)

Without further thorough investigation we are in a position to do neither. At the moment we do not have a coherent account of what happened (see attached "Gleanings"). That is why we believe we should continue to probe.

There is some circumstantial evidence to suggest:

Horman Document, p.2

Our leads are:

Horman Document, p.3

Attachment:


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