About the Author

David Cox has been a reporter for numerous international publications, including the Miami Herald, the Sunday Times, Clarin, La Nacion, and Perfil. He has also worked for the Buenos Aires Herald and the International Herald Tribune.

His first book, coauthored in Spanish with Damian Nabot about the robbery of Juan Peron’s severed hands, won international acclaim. The English version of that book, Unveiling the Enigma, The Secret behind the Defiling of Peron’s Corpse, will be published this year in the U.S.

David is a graduate of the College of Charleston and holds an M.A. in mass communications from the University of South Carolina. He is currently a journalist with CNN in Atlanta.

 

From a Speech by Robert Cox

On Tuesday, November 3, 2009, former Herald editor Robert Cox was formally made “an Illustrious Citizen of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires” in the City Legislature—a recognition of his journalistic heroism and integrity 50 years after he first arrived in Argentina and 30 years after he was forced into exile.

With typical modesty, he spent most of his acceptance speech paying tribute to former journalists both within and beyond the Herald. Outside the press world his appreciation went to his eternal friend Harry Ingham and diplomat Allen “Tex” Harris who contributed hugely to documenting the missing. The press is a human right, Cox insisted—and human rights are much more important than left, right, center, or any political position.

The legislator introducing the initiative to make Cox an honorary citizen was the Civic Coalition's Sergio Abrevaya (a former schoolmate of Cox), who paid tribute to Cox’s choice to commit himself instead of turn a blind eye, sacrificing friendships and social acquaintances in order to save lives.

(review by Michael Soltys & Peter Johnson)

Dirty Secrets, Dirty War

The Exile of Editor Robert J. Cox
Written by David Cox · Foreword by Robert J. Cox
Non-fiction · 244 pages · hardcover with jacket
$26.95 · ISBN-13:9780981873503


From 1976-1983, an estimated 30,000 people disappeared in Argentina. They were victims of the “Dirty War”—a brutal campaign designed by the government to root out possible subversives. Those suspected of being dissidents were kidnapped and taken to secret detention centers. Most were tortured and then killed—never seen again.

Robert J. Cox, editor of the Buenos Aires Herald, did what few others were willing to do—he told the truth about what was happening. Every day his newspaper reported on the kidnappings and killings. He challenged those in power—asking questions and demanding answers. Cox's commitment to reporting the truth made him a hero to the families of the disappeared, but an enemy of the state.

From the Foreword
This is the book that I could not write. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since the end of the aptly named “Dirty War” in Argentina, yet I still find it too painful to relive those malevolent times by writing about them. So, I am deeply indebted to my son David for telling the story of a small English-language daily newspaper, the Buenos Aires Herald, which saved lives by refusing to be silenced by terrorism.
     It is a story that should be told, but not by me. I have always believed in impersonal journalism, the reporter in a shabby raincoat that nobody notices who writes his stories without a byline. I was, trite as it may sound, just doing my job as editor of the newspaper, and the Herald was continuing a tradition of reporting in English what the Argentine press covered up in Spanish.
     It wasn’t easy to “just do your job” in Argentina in the 1970s. During the first half of the decade, Argentina was under attack from terrorists who may be loosely described as “left-wing,” although in the early 1970s, I counted more than 30 armed groups that covered the political spectrum from strutting Nazis to mad Maoists.
     The second half of the 1970s was characterized by state terrorism. I personally went from being seen as a right-wing imperialist by the left for denouncing their acts of terror to finding myself transformed into a subversive Communist by the right for opposing state terrorism. I didn’t change. The political climate changed.

Praise for Dirty Secrets, Dirty War

We all in the Foreign Ministry thank you for being brave, for being honest, for speaking out when most of your colleagues remained silent.
~ Federico Mirre, Argentine Ambassador to the United Kingdom

Mr. Cox, I count myself among your admirers.
~ Jorge Luis Borges, writer

A legendary figure.
~ Bill Montalbano, Miami Herald

A riveting tale.
~ Publishers Weekly

An emblem of journalistic courage.
~ Booklist