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.
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.
"After years of dogged research, Dinges has given us Chile in Their Hearts, a final requiem for two idealistic young American men who were drawn to Chile by Allende's dream of social change. Dinges has already bequeathed to us an invaluable repository of knowledge about the terrors that ensued after the coup. His The Condor Years and Assassination on Embassy Row are truly iconic books of journalistic distinction. Chile in Their Hearts completes, in a sense, a passionate, traumatic trilogy. If what occurred in Chile a half century ago is unforgettable to us today, it is in no small measure thanks to John Dinges and his contributions to our historical memory."—Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer for The New Yorker
"Chile in Their Hearts dramatically revisits and revises one of the most heinous human rights crimes committed by the nascent Pinochet regime. Fifty years later, Dinges's intrepid investigation into the murders of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi provides the fullest, most accurate historical narrative of how and why they were killed."—Peter Kornbluh, author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability
"In Chile in Their Hearts, Dinges mines a lifetime of reporting on Chile to unearth the truth about Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi's politically committed lives and their tragic fates following the Pinochet coup. This model of sleuthing and storytelling ends the debate over Washington's involvement in their murders."—Alan McPherson, author of Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet's Terror State to Justice
"No American journalist has shed more light on the era of South American dictatorships than Dinges. This latest groundbreaking and singular work finally answers once and for all the mystery and controversy as to how two young Americans were murdered days after the 1973 Pinochet coup. A must-read for those seeking hard but revealing truths."—Marc Cooper, author of Pinochet and Me: A Chilean Anti-Memoir
"Dinges applies his usual iron rigor to reveal the facts behind the murder of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, following the evidence where it leads him, discarding assumptions, preconceived ideas, and facile arguments. This book is not just a lesson in journalism but also a moving account of a political and human tragedy."—Pascale Bonnefoy, author of The Investigative Brigade: Hunting Human Rights Criminals in Post-Pinochet Chile
"For over fifty years, Dinges has pursued the truth about U.S. complicity in the Chilean military coup of 1973 and the brutal aftermath of the military dictatorship. Chile in Their Hearts is a meticulous account of the killing of two young, idealistic Americans by the Chilean military immediately after the coup. Dinges's conclusion, after thorough and well-documented research, credibly challenges long-held beliefs."—Senator Tom Harkin (Ret.)
"John Dinges's research unearthed the untold story of my brother Frank's life and death in Chile. There are many intimate details I'm grateful for—yet also hard truths I'm still shocked to read fifty years later."—Janis Teruggi Page
"This great journalistic investigation substantially changes the interpretation put forth in the film Missing, by Costa-Gavras, regarding the role of the U.S. government. It was the failure by the U.S. Embassy to question the facts and instead accept the declarations of the dictatorship that prevented us from having an accurate version of what happened. Now these lingering questions can be clarified with this new book by John Dinges, who once again brings Chile to his heart."—Isabel Allende Bussi, Senator of the Republic of Chile
"Deeply researched and meticulously reported, Chile in Their Hearts offers an honest and complex portrait of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi and what brought them to Chile, largely missing from previous narratives. Dinges also presents a devastating record of how U.S. officials, in an effort to stabilize the dictatorship, callously mislead the victims' families and deceived the wider public by refusing to acknowledge what they knew."—Steven Volk, Professor of History Emeritus, Oberlin College
287 pp.6 x 9Illus: 25 b/w images
9780520413191$27.95|£24.00Paper
Apr 2025