From Confrontation to Alliance: Peronist Argentina's Diplomacy with the United States, 1945–1951

Abstract

During the 1940's and 50's, North American and British writers created a “black legend “of Peronist Argentina, portraying Buenos Aires as a crypto-ally of the Axis powers and maintaining that Argentina planned aggression and subversion against her neighbours. U. S. foreign policy was based on this vision of Argentina as an enemy state. This article attempts to re-evaluate Argentina's political relationship with the United States from 1945 to the end of Peron's first administration. Contrary to the Anglo-American view sketched above, State Department documents suggest that Peron sought to rid the country of Axis spies, propaganda fronts and businesses and thereby to satisfy American demands for “denazification”. Secondly, the article argues that, contrary to the prevailing view of Peron as a radical economic nationalist, he often bowed to U.S. pressure to curb preferences for state-run or private Argentine firms. In the end, Argentine diplomacy helped bring about a transformation in U.S.-Argentine relation...