Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T16:56:41.293Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Politics of Intervention: The United States and Argentina, 1941–1946*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

In Argentina during World War II the US stepped outside the limits of the Good Neighbor policy proclaimed by the Roosevelt administration in 1933 and attempted to overthrow the government of a major Latin American power.1 Between 1941 and 1945 Argentina was not only treated differently from the rest of Latin America by the United States, but was also singled out for harsher treatment than other neutrals, despite its large material contribution to the Allied cause. In 1944 Washington was readier to compromise with Franco's Spain, a country whose Axis connections were notorious, than it was to seek a settlement with the government in Buenos Aires.2 The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of US interference in Argentine affairs after Pearl Harbor and the reasons for US hostility to the rise of Perón following the military coup of June 1943.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Welles, S., Where Are We Heading?, (New York 1946), pp. 399–200.Google Scholar

2 King, F. P., The New Internationalism. Allied Policy and the European Peace 1939–1945 (Newton Abbot, 1973), pp. 112–37;Google ScholarHayes, Carlton, Wartime Mijsion in Spain 1942–45 (New York 1945), pp. 220–5;Google ScholarMedlicott, W. N., The Economic Blockade (2 vols., London, 1959), Vol. 2, pp. 568–76.Google Scholar

3 Welles to FDR, 16 June 1939, PSF Argentina, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. (Hereafer FDRL) Welles to Armour, 23 June 1943, Foreign Relations of the United States 1943 (Washington DC, 1965), Vol. 5, pp. 419–25 (Hereafter FRUS); Welles, Where are We Heading?, pp. 190–1.Google Scholar

4 Potash, Robert A., The Army and Politics in Argentina (Stanford, 1969), p. 142.Google Scholar

5 American Republic Affairs Memorandum, 15 November 1940, 835.55/1423, State Department Records, National Archives, Washington DC. (Herafter DS) Treasury Memorandum, ‘The Henry Morgenthau Diary’, Vol. 307, p. 50, FDRL.Google Scholar

6 Potash, op. cii., pp. 145–6, 165–6.Google Scholar

7 Hadow to Perowne, 12 March 1943, A3015/1I/2, F0371f33511, Foreign Office Archives, Public Record Office, Kew, London. (Hereafter PRO)Google Scholar

8 Potash, op. cit., p. 166.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., pp. 167–8.

10 Ibid., pp. 174–5.

11 Ibid., pp. 167–74.

12 Hadow to Perowne, 12 March 1943, A3015/II/2 F0371/335II, PRO. Memorandum by Perowne, 31 March A3068/4/2 F0371/33507, PRO.Google Scholar

13 Reed to Hull, 29 September 1942, DS 835.00/1280; Memorandum by Perowne, 31 March 1943, A3068/4/2 F037x/33507, PRO.Google Scholar

14 Memorandum by Hoover, J. Edgar, 17 March 1942, DS 835.00/1170. This tale may have owed something to the current belief that Hitler had ‘conquered’ Spain for fascism during the Civil War by bribing Spanish generals.Google Scholar See Chase, A., Falange (New York, 1943), pp. 331.Google Scholar

15 OSS Report, Undated, Henry Wallace Papers, Box 117, FDRL.Google Scholar

16 OSS Report, 29 May 1942, 1693, Military Records Group 226, OSS Reports, National Archives, Washington DC. (Hereafter RG 226)Google Scholar

17 Consultation Among the American Republics With Regard to the Argentine Situation (Washington DC, 1946), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

18 Sir Kelly, David, The Ruling Few (London, 1953), p. 293. Kelly to Eden, 7 April 1943, A3903/11/2 F0371/3351 PRO.Google Scholar

19 Memorandum by Rockefeller, 30 January 1942, Wallace Papers, Box 117, FDRL.Google Scholar

20 Welles to Armour, 23 June 1943, FRUS Vol. 5, pp. 419–25. OSS Report, 20 November 1941, State Department Research and Analysis Branch Reports, No 152, National Archives, Washington DC, (Hereafter R & A Reports)Google Scholar

21 Memorandum by Rockefeller, 30 January 1942, Wallace Papers, Box 117, FDRL. American Republic Affairs Division, Memorandum, I December 1941, ARA Reports, Box 18, National Archives, Washington DC. (Hereafter ARA Reports)Google Scholar

22 OSS Report, 29 May 1942, 16931, RG 226.Google Scholar

23 New York Times, 5 June 1943.Google Scholar

24 Hoover to Hopkins, 8 April 1942, The Harry Hopkins Papers, Box 244, FDRL. Kelly to Eden, 7 April 1943, A3903/II/2 F0371/3351, PRO. Kelly, The Ruling Few, pp. 289.Google Scholar

25 Armour to Hull, 3 February 1942, FRUS 1942, Vol. 5, p. 376. Welles to Armour, 13 May 1942,Google ScholarIbid., pp. 396–7.

26 Welles to Armour, 27 March 1942, Records of the Foreign Economic Administration, Record Group 569, Box 2532; Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland. (Hereafter RG 269)Google Scholar

27 BEW Memorandum, 22 April 1942, FEA, Box 2531, RG 569. Ravndal to Callado, 10 March 1943, FRUS 1943, Vol. 5, pp. 409. Kelly to Halifax, 7 July 1943, A7059/520/51 F0371/33909, PRO.Google Scholar

28 Granger to Cabot, 4 October 1945, Records of the US Embassy in BA, Record Group 84, File 124.5, WNRC (Hereafter RG 84)Google Scholar

29 Committee on Argentine Policy to Coe, Frank, 15 May 1943, FEA, Box 2531, RG 169.Google Scholar

30 Memorandum by Duggan, 26 December 1942, FRUS 1942, Vol. 5, p. 373. Welles to FDR, 13 February 1942, PSF Welles, FDRL.Google Scholar

31 Memorandum by Bonsal, 28 March 1942, FRUS 1942, Vol. 5, pp. 334–35.Google Scholar

32 New York Times, 30 January 1943. Halifax to Eden, 6 February 1943, A18a9/4/2 FO371/33507, PRO.Google Scholar

33 ARA Memorandum, 18 February 1943, DS 835.00/1367.Google Scholar

34 Memorandum by Rockefeller, 30 January 1942, Wallace Papers, Box 117, FDRL.Google Scholar

35 Reed to Hull, 19 August 1942, DS 835.00/1247.Google Scholar

36 Armour to Hull, 30 December 1942, DS 835.00/1328. Armours to Hull, 31 December 1942, DS 835.00/1317.Google Scholar

37 Armour to Hull, 20 January 1943, DS 835.00/1343.Google Scholar

38 New York Times, 21 February 1943.Google Scholar

39 State Department Memorandum, II March 1943, DS 835.00/1371.Google Scholar

40 Armour to Hull, 1 January 1843, FRUS 1943, Vol., p. 365.Google Scholar

41 Armour to Hull, 2 June 1943, DS 835.00/1420.Google Scholar

42 ‘Wickard Diary’, 9 June 1943, The Claude Wickard Papers, Personal Diaries 1943, FDRL.Google Scholar

43 Armour to Duggan, 4 June 1943, DS 835.007/1610. Armour to Hull, 9 June 1943, FRUS 1943, Vol. 5, pp. 373–75.Google Scholar

44 Halifax to Eden, 24 June 1943, A5895/11/2 FO371/33513, PRO.Google Scholar

45 Argentine Committee to Lazlo, Hector, 10 June 1943, FEA, Box 2531, RG 169.Google Scholar

46 FBI Memorandum, 10 June 1943, DS 835.00/1618.Google Scholar

47 Hoover to Hopkins, 82 June 1943, Hopkins Papers, Box 140, FDRL.Google Scholar

48 OSS Memorandum, 27 July 1943, R & A Reports, No. 982.Google Scholar

49 ARA Memorandum, 26 June 1943, ARA Reports, Box 18.Google Scholar

50 ARA Memorandum, 26 June 1943Google ScholarIbid.

51 Welles to Armour, FRUS 1943, Vol. 5, pp. 439–25.Google Scholar

52 ARA Memorandum, 6 July 1943, ARA Reports, Box 18.Google Scholar

53 Hoover to Hopkins, 7 December 1943, Hopkins Papers, Box 340, FDRL. Ibid., 9 December 1943.

54 Shepardson to Gorden, 30 August 1943, DS 862.202357/1291.Google Scholar

55 Morgenthau to FDR, 28 March ‘Morgenthau Diary’, Book 725, 35, FDRL. Hull to Latin American embassies, 21 March 1944, DS 800.20235/431B.Google Scholar

56 OSS Report, 29 July 1943, DS 835.00/1891.Google Scholar

57 OSS Report, 4 September 1943, R & A Reports, No. 1169.Google Scholar

58 Hoover to Hopkins, undated January 1944, Hopkins Papers, Box 144, FDRL.Google Scholar

59 ‘The Armaments Industry in Argentina’, undated, December 1943, Wallace Papers, Box 117, FDRL. The memorandum is based on intercepts and other secret sources and deals with relations between the Argentine government and various foreign companies, Axis, neutral and Allied.Google Scholar

60 Hoover to Hopkins, 22 December 1943, Hopkins Papers, Box 140, FDRL.Google Scholar

61 Morgenthau to FDR, 30 March 1944, ‘Morgenthau Diary’, Book 716, pp. 254–6, FDRL.Google Scholar

62 FBI Memorandum, 20 August 1941, DS 862.20235/459. New York Times, 2 September 1943; Treasury Memorandum, 28 March 1944, ‘Morgenthau Diary’, Book 725, p. 37.Google Scholar

63 Blum, John M. (ed.), The Price of Vision. The Diary of Henry A. Wallace 1942–1946, (Boston, 1973), p. 294.Google Scholar

64 Morgenthau to FDR, 10 May 1944, ‘Morgenthau Diary’, Book 730, 149, FDRL.Google Scholar

65 Armour to Hull, 7 August 1943, DS 835.00/1714.Google Scholar

66 Hull to Armour, 30 August 1943, FRUS 1943, Vol. 5, pp. 454–60.Google Scholar

67 Griffiths to Reed, 21 September 1943, File 800, RG 84.Google Scholar

68 Lang, General, Weekly Stability Reports, 19 October 1943, 23 November 1943, 14 December 1943, File 800, RG 84.Google Scholar

69 Morgenthau to FDR, 10 May 1944, ‘Morgenthau Diary’, Book 730, 153–4.Google Scholar

70 Jacobs, Travis B. and Berle, Beatrice (eds.), Navigating the Rapids. From the Papers of Adolf Berle (New York, 1973), pp. 449–50.Google Scholar

71 FDR to Hull, 12 January 1944, PSF Hull, FDRL.Google Scholar

72 Ibid.

73 Memorandum by Hull, 27 December 1943, Cordell Hull Papers, Reel 30, Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Washington DC.Google Scholar

74 Potash, The Army and Politics in Argentina, 231.Google Scholar

75 Ibid., pp. 236–7.

76 Blum, The Price of Vision, p. 307.Google Scholar

77 Statement by Stettinius, 4 March 1944, FRUS 1944, Vol. 7, pp. 259–60.Google Scholar

78 Armour to Hull, 25 February 1944, ibid., 252–3.

79 Kelly to Eden, 25 February 1944, AS 322/4/2 F0371/37669, PRO.Google Scholar

80 Jacobs and Berle, Navigating the Rapids, p. 455.Google Scholar

81 US embassy to Mathews, 23 September 1944, DS 835.00/9–2344.Google Scholar

82 Kelly, The Ruling Few, p. 310. Kelly to Eden, 7 April 1943, A3903/II/2 F0371/33511, PRO.Google Scholar

83 Memorandum by Perowne, 19 December 1943, A114017/I17/2 F0371/33517, PRO. Berle to Stettinius, 15 February 1945, Berle papers, Box 716, FDRL.Google Scholar

84 Hadow to Perowne, 3 November 1945, AS6378/317/51 FO371/45019, PRO.Google Scholar

85 Intelligence Report, December 1943, Wallace Papers, Box 117, FDRL. The Allied firms included ICI and Dupont.Google Scholar

87 Report by Davis, Colonel, Assistant Military Attaché in Buenos Aires, 23 October 1945, George S. Messersmith Papers, File 1741, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. (Hereafter UDL)Google Scholar

88 Potash, op. cit., p. 243.Google Scholar

89 Armour to Hull, 18 April 1944, DS 835.007/2797. Memorandum by Armour, 24 November 1944, ARA Reports, Box 19.Google Scholar

90 Memorandum by Armour, 21 September 1944, ARA Reports, Box 19.Google Scholar

91 Potash, p. 243.Google Scholar

92 Memorandum by Gilmore, 12 March 1945, ARA Reports, Box 19.Google Scholar

93 ARA to Armour, 26 October 1944, Ibid. Memorandum by Wendelin, November 1944, Ibid.

94 Rafael to Rockefeller, 7 February 1945, Berle Papers, Box 216, FDRL.Google Scholar

95 Diary, Stettinius, 8 April 1945, Harley A. Notter File, Box 29, National Archives, Washington DC. (Hereafter Notter File)Google Scholar

96 Reed to Rockefeller, 1 April 1945, DS 711.357/4–1945. Memorandum by Grew, 20 April 1945, DS 711.357/4–2045. Stettinius Diary, 20 April 1945, Notter File, Box 29.Google Scholar

97 Diary, Stettinius, 20 April 1945, Notter File, Box 29.Google Scholar

98 Notes made by Collins (United Press) of Braden's press conference, 18 September 1945, Messersmith Papers, File 1730, UDL.Google Scholar

99 Braden to Byrnes, 4 September 1945, FRUS 1945, Vol. 9, pp. 406–7.Google Scholar

100 Braden to Berle, 27 June 1945, Berle Papers, Box 74, FDRL.Google Scholar

101 Green, David, The Containment of Latin America (Chicago, 1971), p. 252.Google Scholar

102 Notes by Collins (UP), 18 September 1945, Messersmith Papers, File 1730, UDL.Google Scholar

103 Balfour to the Foreign Office, 18 August 1945, AS4251/12/2 F03717/44688, PRO. Hadow to Perowne, 8 August 1945, AS42327/72/2 F0371/44688, PRO.Google Scholar

104 Braden to Berle, 27 June 1945, Berle Papers, Box 74, FDRL. Braden to Corrigan, 17 October Corrigan Papers, Box I, FDRL.Google Scholar

105 Notes by Collins (UP), 18 September 1945, Messersmith Papers, File UDL.Google Scholar

106 Hadow to Kelly, 26 October 1945, AS5647/12/2 FO 371s/44690, PRO.Google Scholar

107 Cabot to Briggs, 17 November 1945, FRUS 1945, Vol., pp. 426–39.Google Scholar

108 US Information Service Report, 26 October AS5970/12/2 F03717/44690, PRO.Google Scholar

109 Hadow to Perowne, 3 November 1945, AS63787/317/51 F0371/450,9, PRO.Google Scholar

110 Hadow to Perowne, 29 November 1945, AS6283/3177/51 FO371/45019, PRO.Google Scholar

111 Memorandum by Wendelin, 22 September 1944, ARA Reports, Box 19.Google Scholar

112 Interrogation of Edmund, Freiherr von Thermann, November 1945, OSS Reports, XL2867, RG 226. Interrogation of Captain Dietrich Niebuhr, November 1945, OSS Reports XL, 27948, RG 226.Google Scholar

113 State Department Memorandum, 9 January 1946, DS 835.00/–1–946.Google Scholar

114 FBI Memorandum, 11 February 1946, DS 835.00/2–1146.Google Scholar

115 Cabot to Braden, 8 February 1946, DS 835.007/2–846.Google Scholar

116 Cabot to Braden, 16 February 1946, DS 835.00/2–1646.Google Scholar

117 FBI Memorandum, 17 January 1946, 835.00/1–1946.Google Scholar

118 Ibid.

119 Braden to Messersmith, 20 February 1946, DS 835.00/2–2646.Google Scholar

120 Braden to Messersmith, 20 February 1946, DS 835.00/2–2846.Google Scholar

121 Minute by Perowne, 10 September 1943, A8404/II/21 F0371/33516, PRO.Google Scholar

122 Messersmith to Salzburger, 25 September 1946, Messersmith Papers, File 1809, UDL; Messersmith to Clayton, 31 October 1946Google Scholar, Ibid., File 1815, UDL.

123 The US military attaché, General Lang, established ‘close personal friendship with the democratic-minded officers of the Army and Navy’ and often dined with them. On at least one occasion, in September 3944, Lang was informed about plans for a coup and encouraged the plotters. Perón regarded Lang as a personal enemy and ordered Army officers to boycott the attaché. See Lang to War Department, 1 June 1945, Record Group 84, Box 524, File 121, WNRC, Lang to War Department, 6 June 1945,Google ScholarIbid., Lang to Military Intelligence, 16 September 3944, Ibid., Box 522, File 800. On the amounts spent by the US on ‘Propaganda and infiltration’ in Argentina, see Cabot to Granger, October 1945, Ibid., Box 524, File 124.5.

124 Woods, op. cit., pp. 22–7, 61–7, 72–3.Google Scholar

125 Ibid., pp. x–xi.

126 Cotler, Julio and Fagen, Richard R. (eds.), Latin America and the United States. The Changing Political Realities (Stanford, California, 1974), pp. 129–63.Google Scholar

127 Woods, op. cit., pp. x–xi, 171.Google Scholar

128 Coder and Fagen, op. cit., pp. 164–75.Google Scholar

129 Woods, op. cit., pp. 1–10.Google Scholar

130 ‘Morgenthau Diary’, 24 November 1943, Vol. 679, 199, FDRL.Google Scholar

131 Woods, op. cit., p. 210.Google Scholar

132 Armour to Hull, 25 February 1944, FRUS 1944, Vol. VII, 252–3. On local en-encouragement of Braden's campaign see, Memo by sLockwood, 23 June 1945, Record Group 84, Box 525, File 800, WNRS, and embassy memo, 3 August 1945,Google Scholaribid.

133 Woods, op. cit., pp. 84–5, 130.Google Scholar

134 Welles to Armour, 1 July 1943, DS 835.00/1632.Google Scholar

135 MacDonald, C. A., The United States, Britain and Appeasement (London, 1980), pp. 379–80.Google Scholar

136 Jacobs, Travis B. and Berle, Beatrice B. (eds.), Navigating the Rapids (New York, 1973), pp. 292, 324. Macdonald, op. cit., pp. 1–15, 83–4, 107–8, 126–7.Google Scholar

137 Ickes, Harold L. (ed), The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes (3 volumes, London, 1955), Vol. 2, pp. 569–70.Google Scholar

138 Wallace, Henry A., Democracy Reborn (London, 1955), pp. 362–3.Google Scholar

139 Fodor, Jorge, ‘Peron's Policies for Agricultural Exports 1946–1948’, in Rock, David (ed.), Argentina in the Twentieth Century (London, 1975), pp. 135–62.Google Scholar

140 Griffis, Stanton, Lying in State (New York, 1952), p. 259.Google Scholar

141 Macdonald, op. cit., pp. 12–13, 74–5, 8–6.Google Scholar

142 Ibid., pp. 133–4.

143 Memorandum by Tenenbaum, Edward A., 18 August 1949, Edward A. Tenenbaum Papers, Box 1, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri.Google Scholar

144 Kolko, Gabriel, The Politics of War (New York, 1968), PP. 245–54.Google Scholar

145 Ibid., pp. 280–94.

146 Hull to FDR, 13 September 1944, PSF Argentina, FDRL.Google Scholar

147 Woods, op. cit., pp. 56–60, 175.Google Scholar

148 Hadow to Noble, 9 April 1945, AS2251/12/2 FO371/44686, PRO.Google Scholar

149 The Economist, 5 August 1944, pp. 174–5.Google Scholar