NEW FILM BY COSTA-GAVRAS EXAMINES THE CHILEAN COUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302820002-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: February 7, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302820002-6
STAT
ARTICLE PEAR D
NEW YORK TIMES
7 FEBRUARY 1992
But it isn't a documentary, and in< "E
the course of an interview Mr. Costa-. ?Am
"Don't ask a film director to be a polit-. bens;
1~ 1 Iml technician," he said after a shrnv to
j.` JL' j fag here. "Either you give two points Pow
of view, or you say. `Here's what I, Feb
;..+O es. ta" uavras : ''; ,Thais the problem. Tine ;i.lm gives inA.`I
` ' Horman's, but its claim to present a D,r?
nes basic historical truth puts it in a differ. clu
~x~
?
hilean C.0
'-.?
'
By FLORA LEWIS
uons um pouumai tnrtuers. It is a teen-
pique which raises serious ethical, B
moral and political as well as artistic ! deaf
.f,. rn~
Mr. Costa-Gavras says he coIlQa.
r act: A young American free. . fort to speak with the government offi- ' 1
Pik a and the aecreta of Defense (them
lance writer named Charles .dais he
p
o
t
y
r
ra
s
nor to crnult ? e . _ . _ ~'
the Pinochet regime to powe ,r for Frank Church, Democrat of Idaho,
in Chile. :: r} 'which made extensive investigations Nonetheless, Allende was elected.
Fact: His father, a New York indu*'. and issued a report on "Covert Action After that, according to the Church
trial designer, was told that his:'
oar ; in Chile: 1963-1973." Committee and statements by Nathan-
was missing and went to Chile in *hat- "The director can't do everything," iel Davis, who was Ambassador in
became a desperate search tofind, he said. "Hauser did the research and Santiago from 1971 until shortly after
Charles. Edmund C. Horrnan, the-fa,-? saw all those people, and I went the 1973 coup, the United States clan-!
ther, gradually became convinced through all his notes." .. neled funds to political parties, press'
that the American Embassy in-San, The difficulty is that the role of the and radio stations in Chile but stayed'
tiago not only knew about the murder` United States in Chile remains an ex- away from violent right wingers and
from the start but was intent on can.. tremelycontroversial, emotional sub- i ryplots.
cealing it because it shared respott :' ject. A good deal has been made public
? bility. He later sued 11 high United, and it documents some nasty episodes, The thesis, I'lr. Davis wrote in the
States officials for $4 million, but after, When Salvador Allende's regime was Foreign Service Journal ,in 1978, was
a year and a half the case was. dis-, overturned by Gen. Augusta Pinochet that the Allende Government was put-
missed for lack of evidence.. ..:: in a vast, murderous rampage, many ling such intense pressure on the oppo-
Fact: A lawyer named Thomas. people, particularly French Socialists, sition's capacity to survive that it
Hauser was drawn into. the Hormair felt it showed the United States would might be unable to contest the next
family's crusade and wrote a .book
go to any length to prevent the sur- election scheduled for 1976. The secret '
about the incident called "The Exect- vival of another leftist government be- subsidies, he said, were to enable op-
tion of Charles Horman: An American sides Cuba in the ? Western Herni- position parties and distributors of in-i
Sacrifice,"published inl979, sphere. The French left. indentified formation to compete with Govern-
Fact: Costa-Gavras, the Paris: their own aims with Allende. The coup. anent-support d parties and press..
based Greek .director who; made: became a kind of litmus test for the
powerful political films about cases in,. Paris intelligentsia, a sequel to the "We still have not,' as a _ soctety,,
Greece, Czechoslovakia and Uruguay{: Vietnam war. thought through the practical and ethic
accepted an offer from. Universal -td e f cal implications of covert action,'; tiir~
make a movie from the~Hauser book. . Newspaper reports, especially those Davis said: He pointed- out, and the
It is called Missing, stars ? Jack -of Seymour M. Hersh in The New York record confirms, that he successfully,
Lemmon and Sissy Spacek and.. it,
Times, and lengthy records of the opposed C.I.A. suggestions to support.
opens in New York On Friday at, the Church Committee in 1975 and 1976! strikes and demonstrations to under-'
Beekman- theater. It is tautly, well. showed that the United States had in- ! mine Allende. =
made and anematically convicting :< deed been involved in Chilean politics.
Fiction: "This film is based qn a : The most damaging evidence related However, Richard Helms and Hal
true story. The incidents and facts are,} to C.I.A. activity attempting to pre- Hendrix, an I.T.T. official, were con-;
been changed to protect the time, it was sreelection in 1970. At that vealed an infamous, ~rt~ of perjury for their testimony* P ? before a 1973 Senate committee. on,
and also to protect the film." : ' operation called "Track - II" linked what happened in 1970. And there was
? American agents with violent right- ? the extraordinary This message is shown at.the start.. win in Nvcon order
S groups. .. ;...- . r .:.~ _.._ . .: Helms not to inform Ambassador
or
the film. In many cases.real:oas-stcs: Korry and two top cabinet members of
are used, r?ealgret ?areevoic6d:.reatf . that plot. Credibility became a serious
~encotmt6r`s' portrayed. These devices issue in disentangling the Chile story.
and the diiactor's.art.are combiredto .:~ :.~~ . .
J persuade the atrdimce that the la
~~ story grid. its clia,*ge _
- Statue helped plan the -coop in Chile. , COly v .~
:ands Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302820002-6
the:1973 - - - { ,lacy meeting
the coup that broil h --: telligence Committee headed by Sena-