Transitions.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - US support of 1973 Chilean coup - Editorial

September 11 marks the fortieth anniversary of one of the most shameful events in the history of U.S. foreign policy. I'm referring to the support that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger gave for the coup that took down the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile.

In thinking about how we here at The Progressive might commemorate that event, I was reminded of the movie Missing, starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, and of the book it was adapted from, The Execution of Charles Horman, by Thomas Hauser, which I had picked up in a remainder bin outside a bookstore in Washington in 1981. At the time, I wondered why more people hadn't heard of this story. Thanks to Costa-Gavras, they eventually did.

We're pleased to have an interview with Costa-Gavras this month, where he talks a bit about Missing.

And we're thrilled to have a personal account by Charles Horman's widow, Joyce Horman. I stumbled upon her while doing some research on the Web and discovered that she was heading up the Charles Horman Truth Foundation. I contacted her and asked her to write her reflections for our cover story this month. I couldn't be happier with what she produced.

This is my last Editor's Note to you. After nineteen years at the helm here, I've decided to step back a bit. I'm going to be senior editor from now on, and I'll remain as publisher for a while longer, but it's time for new leadership, energy, and vision at The Progressive. So I'm delighted to announce that Ruth Conniff will be the new editor of The Progressive.

Conniff came to The Progressive as an intern back in 1988. We hired her as an associate editor soon after she graduated from Yale. She became the magazine's Washington editor for several years in the 1990s. Since then, she's been our political editor, and you've been reading her perceptive columns and path-breaking...