Charles and Joyce Horman, 1971

Twenty-five years ago, on 9/11/2001, terrorists brought down the World Trade Center and with it the Windows on the World restaurant in the North Tower where Charles Horman and I planned to get together in 1973.

Charlie and I met in Chile after Salvador Allende was elected President on September 4, 1970.  We were both journalists inspired by Allende’s goal to move his country toward socialism by peaceful and democratic means and unaware at the time, as the U.S. Senate detailed in its 1975 report titled  Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, that “the C.I.A.  was instructed by President Nixon to play a direct role in organizing a military coup d’etat in Chile to prevent Allende from assuming office and when that failed to overthrow the Popular Unity government he headed.  

As a result, our government participated in a three-year series of events that began less than two weeks after the election with Rene Schneider, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, being mortally wounded in an attempt to kidnap him and culminated on 9/11/1973 with the bombing of the presidential palace and death of Allende.   Subsequently, General Augusto Pinochet took control of the country and under his dictatorship thousands of Chileans were imprisoned, tortured and killed.

For me, therefore, 9/11/1973 along with 9/11/2001 is a date that, as Franklin Roosevelt said about 12/7/1941, “will live in infamy.”  Consequently, every year as their anniversary approaches, I think about Charlie and how he would address the most important issues facing our and other democracies.  Hence this year, were we to meet up at the ONE Dine restaurant on the 101^st floor of the rebuilt One World Trade Center Freedom Tower on the 25^th anniversary of 9/11/2001 and the 53 anniversary of 9/11/1973, I would ask him for his thoughts about Iran and ICE and the upcoming midterm elections and how we should commemorate the victims of both 9/11s.     

Regrettably, however, before we managed to get together at the Windows on the World restaurant Charlie returned to Chile to continue an investigation he had initiated of the role the U.S. played in the attempt to kidnap General Schneider and six days after the coup, as the book by Thomas Hauser titled The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice and the riveting award-winning Costa Gavras movie based on it titled Missing and other sources make clear, he was arrested and killed.  

So, were he alive today, how would Charlie, a student of history who graduated from Harvard summa cum laude, answer my question?  Since I cannot know precisely what he would say, I’ll answer it myself as if he had asked it of me. 

First, I’d reply: “given Iran’s rulers’ support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, and the Houthis in Yemen and, as the 911 commission pointed out, its documented facilitation of the travel of al-Qaeda operatives—including at least eight future 9/11 hijackers—through Iran (even though it had no evidence that they knew if their plans to take down the World Trade Center), it’s clear they share the Al Qaeda terrorists’ animosity for Western democracies.  Hence, it is important to prevent them from obtaining nuclear weapons.  But killing innocent civilians and their children by dropping bombs on their country is not the way to do it.” 

Second, I’d add: “Furthermore given the well documented role the C.I.A. played in the  overthrow of the democratically elected governments of Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran on 8/19/1953, Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala on 6/27/1954, and Salvador Allende on 9/11/1973 and given, furthermore, President Trump’s support for the rioters who attempted to overturn the election of Joseph Biden on 1/6/2020, his efforts to undermine confidence in the integrity of our elections and his characterization of Kim Jong Un, the dictator of North Korea, as “a terrific person and a friend of mine” any claim that we went to war with Iran to support the effort of Iranians to restore their democracy lacks credibility.”  

Third, I’d point out that it is difficult to promote democracies in other countries if we don’t practice what we preach at home.   That, however, is not what we are doing when we send ICE agents into our cities to terrorize immigrants who live there or when we pardon members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who assaulted law enforcement officers and others who along with them participated in the January 6 insurrection.   

Finally, I’d conclude that the best way to commemorate the victims of both 9/11/1973 and 9/11/2001 is to use our knowledge of the events that led up to them, different as they may have been, to inspire us to join the effort to create the just and hence peaceful world those who drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after World War II were aiming for.  And that is something I am sure Charlie would agree with.