A tall Texan brought victims of Argentina’s “dirty war” to international attention
A tall Texan brought victims of Argentina’s “dirty war” to international attention
Posted on December 18, 2013 | By Stewart Powell
Towering Texan F. Allen “Tex” Harris says he repeatedly tried to right wrongs during a tumultuous 35-year foreign service career.
The straight-talking, 6-foot-7 former all-state high school basketball star tracked the “disappeared” during Argentina’s “dirty war,” battled transmission of the HIV virus in South Africa and spoke out on behalf of the atmosphere’s imperiled ozone layer during Ronald Reagan’s overhaul of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The 75-year-old retired diplomat, a Dallas native who winters in Galveston, says he has savored every moment of his chosen path as “a joyful contrarian.”
“I made a career out of being a pain,” says the graduate of Princeton and University of Texas law school. “My mother always said speak out and help people. It’s just the way I’m wired.”
The United Nations Association has honored Harris “for the use of diplomacy to advance human rights” during his pioneering efforts in the late 1970s to bring the missing victims of Argentina’s junta to the attention of the State Department, the White House and the international community.
Harris’ vivid, first-hand accounts were not always welcomed back in Washington, where many Cold War-era officials turned a blind eye to the military regime’s gruesome campaign against left-wing “terrorists” rather than embracing the Carter administration’s emphasis on human rights abuses.
More:
http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/12/a-tall-texan-brought-victims-of-argentinas-dirty-war-to-international-attention/
