Dirty Secrets, Dirty War: The Exile of Robert J. Cox (Buenos Aires, Argentina: 1976-1983) - Hardcover

David Cox

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0981873502 ISBN 13: 9780981873503

Publisher: Evening Post Publishing Company with Joggling Board Press, 2008

Synopsis

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.

This is the remarkable story of one man s courage in the face of adversity. It is the story of a man dedicated to protecting the freedom of the press and to protecting his family. It is the story of those who disappeared and the man who stayed in order to tell their stories.

Cox s story is told by his son David who grew up under the pall of terrorism, but was inspired by his father s great courage to write what was true. He has written the book that his father could not.

About this title

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 worked for the Buenos Aires Herald, and the International Herald Tribune among other newspapers.

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 the book, Unveiling the Enigma, The Secret behind the Defiling of Peron s Corpse will be published in 2008 in the U.S. A version of Dirty Secrets, Dirty War was published in Spanish and titled, En Honor a la Verdad, Memorias del Exilio de Robert Cox.

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

Robert J. Cox has been a journalist for nearly six decades. After 20 years with the Buenos Aires Herald, he was a visiting scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington in 1980 and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, 1980-81. He became assistant editor of the News and Courier (now the Post and Courier) in Charleston, S.C., in 1982, where he works today.

Cox was awarded the Maria Moors Cabot Medal from Columbia University, New York; Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to international journalism; Editor of the Year (Grenada Television, Great Britain, 1980). He served as President of the Inter American Press Association from 2001 to 2002.

From Booklist:

David Cox is the son of Robert J. Cox, former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald and one of the few journalists courageous enough to report on the many disappearances and horrific violence that took place during Argentina’s guerra sucia. David, 13 years old when his father and the rest of the family finally fled Argentina after years of close scrapes, here presents the memoir his father, writing in the foreword, admits that he still finds too painful to author himself. Punctuating his historical narrative of the escalating conflict with affectionate anecdotes about his large, tight-knit, and literary family, Cox the son wavers between nostalgia for the Buenos Aires of his childhood and flashbacks of the terrifying episodes that ultimately pressed the family to leave. But this book’s true focus is Cox the father, who emerges as an emblem of journalistic courage, suffering anxiety and asthma with silent tenacity while reporting on human-rights violations (and in some cases, causing the disappeared to be freed). An important primary source for Latin American history collections, this account is also sure to inspire budding journalists. --Brendan Driscoll

About this edition

• Publisher: Evening Post Publishing Company with Joggling Board Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0981873502
• ISBN 13: 9780981873503
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244
• Editor: Susan Kammeraad-Campbell, John M. Burbage