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Words & Reflectionsfied), pro-military (several members ofMaud’s family were officers), politicallyconservative and, in many cases—toCox’s shock—anti-Semitic.In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s,when Argentina’s working and middleclasses radicalized, Cox opposed theguerrilla movements (“terrorism” in hisnomenclature) and the political left. Hereceived death threats by Montoneros,the Peronist guerrilla, and was viewed“as a right-wing imperialist by theleft,” as he puts it. When in 1976 anew military dictatorship overthrew ademocratically elected government andtook power with the stated purpose ofcrushing the “subversive elements” inthe country, Cox, by then editor of theHerald, almost applauded.The Herald supported the militaryjunta and its first leader, GeneralJorge R. Videla, as did the majorityof the press. Cox had good contacts inthe armed forces and met often withhigh-ranking government officials.He supported the economic plan andhad a dear friend who was appointedfinance director at the Ministry ofEconomy.Almost everyone Cox knew andloved saw the dictatorship as a wayout from one of Argentina’s darkerperiods. It would be, at last, an endto Peronism and its evils; it wouldtransform the economic structure ofthe country and put an end to thepolitical violence originated, as theysaw it, in the “terrorism” of the leftand the internal feuds of the Peronistparty.But Cox soon realized that somethingvery different was taking place.In cocktail parties, in conversationswith military sources, in calls fromthe Herald’s readers, he started tohear about people being kidnappedand “disappeared.” The first confirmationcame from an English expatriatecouple whose son had been abductedby a squad of policemen in the middleof the night and later found deadwith signs of having been tortured.Far-right factions within the government,he concluded, had adopted themethods of the left-wing “terrorists.”It had become, he deplored, “anotherterrorism.”While praising the economic planand other aspects of the military administration,the Herald publishedfront-page stories about the disappearances.Those articles saved lives:several people “reappeared.” It was acourageous decision, and the Heraldwas mostly alone among Argentineanpublications. The government hadissued strict censorship rules, andreporters and editors were among thedetainees and disappeared.Herald News Editor AndrewGraham-Yool came up with the ideaof having the relatives of the disappearedsecure habeas corpus writs sothat the reports of kidnappings wouldhave an official source. Only one otherArgentinean newspaper, La Opinión,followed the Herald in publishing thehabeas corpus writs.As a frequent stringer for Americannewspapers such as The WashingtonPost, Cox wrote the first stories aboutthe gatherings of the relatives of thedisappeared in front of the GovernmentHouse. The Mothers of the Plaza deMayo and, later, the Grandmothersof the Plaza de Mayo, would becomeworldwide symbols of the fight againststate terrorism as they gathered incrowds to clamor for the truth abouttheir children’s whereabouts.The Herald’s newsroom became ameeting point for the relatives of thevictims—the only newsroom in whichthey were welcomed. A few othernewspapers occasionally agreed to runlists with the names of the disappearedunder the form of “solicitadas,” paidads. But Cox refused to take moneyfrom the relatives. The Herald alsobecame the most reliable source ofinformation about human rightsviolations in Argentina. It reached acirculation of 20,000 and gained internationalprestige. Argentines foundin it what they couldn’t find in theirSpanish-language publications.The Story’s Personal TollMost journalists in Argentina knowCox’s record. What not everyoneknows is the price he and his familypaid. David Cox tells of his father’ssevere asthma seizures. With threatsmounting against him and his family—Robert Cox was detained for 24 hoursand faced the prospect of his owndisappearance—his children “alternatedtheir route home from schoolto the apartment, sometimes takingthe train and other times riding thebus.” He also became isolated fromfriends and people whom they thoughtwere friends. To many in his own socialcircle, he’d become a “subversiveCommunist.”In June 1979, Cox lamented that,“People treat me, I imagine, in thesame way they would treat a condemnedman.” He designed mentalescape plans from his home andfrom the newsroom in case they camelooking for him. He’d wake up in themiddle of the night fearing someonehad entered their house and, when hewent to check on his children to besure they were all right, found themawake and alert.After three long years of living infear, his son Peter, an elementaryschool student, received a threateningletter: It carried personal informationthat only someone close to the familywould know. (Years later, they wouldlearn that the informer was a cousinof Maud’s who served in the Navy.)The letter stated that the family hadthe “option” of seeking exile or theywould be “assassinated.”Cox asked General Videla for protection.When Videla argued he couldn’tguarantee his own security, Cox decidedto go into exile. Bit by bit he came torealize that it was not a fraction of themilitary involved in state terrorism,but the entire government. From theUnited States, Cox continued to be anoutspoken critic of these human rightsviolations until in 1983 democracy wasrestored in Argentina.It took years for the press, whichhad praised the dictatorship and omittedcoverage of most of its crimes,to regain public credibility. But theHerald was never again such a finenewspaper. Last year, after a longfinancial struggle, the U.S.-ownedEvening Post Publishing Co. sold itto an Argentinean entrepreneur ofdubious reputation. At about the sametime, Cox retired as assistant editor for92 Nieman Reports | Summer 2009