STORM CLOUDS IN ARGENTINA
Allen, Marie & Devere
Storm Clouds In Argentina By DEVERE and MARIE ALLEN SIZING UP ARGENTINA is easy if you merely bawl out that unhappy country's dictatorial regime. To do that is thoroughly justified, because the...
...Now the Argentine Government, after long and intense effort, has turned out a lot of modern and reportedly excellent war equipment, all in Argentine factories, and is going ahead with a self-sufficient program that will eventually arm the country to its molars...
...Argentina's deliverance will have to come primarily from within...
...A dangerous arms race is in the making...
...There is something to be said for both views, though Mr...
...Hull's is certainly more satisfying and well deserved...
...Up to now, virtually all the armament available for Latin American governments has been supplied by the United States, and we have sent one military mission after another to train these countries to the southward in their use...
...This paper recently quoted the London Financial Times as saying: "The economic situation in Argentina continues bright, and it is probably the most prosperous country in the world...
...We are walking a very narrow and risky path in Latin American diplomacy, and we have been saved from disaster at times only by the skill of men who, one after another, have recently been pushed out of their diplomatic and economic jobs at Washington...
...Sumner Welles has indicated his belief that a "tough" policy will only close the Argentine ranks and lend prestige to the Farrell-Peron government, while Secretary Hull apparently believes a strong stand will wear them down and cause a popular uprising...
...One strongly idealistic, firm, and hopeful stand for specific.peace aims would confound the pro-Nazi groups, just as Churchill's laudation of Dictator Franco in Spain did more to harm democracy in Latin America than a hundred Axis propagandists...
...But do they hold their power merely by force, arrests of opposition leaders, suppression, and tyranny...
...The southern city of Bahia Blanca has a progressive daily, El Atlantico...
...It concludes: "It is still more satisfying to see on how much reality this foreign confidence is based, and on what prospects for the future...
...The dictators need not be appeased, but neither should they be permitted to win plaudits on their home grounds as the boys who stuck out their tongues at a hostile Uncle Sam...
...S. feeling is strong enough among almost all Argentines to cause some gratification when the colonels' clique confiscates our business firms' holdings or professes to see in the American war attitude nothing of importance for the future of the world...
...They have been clever enough to exploit certain popular emotions and prejudices so as to strengthen their regime even in some measure with the people who are opposed to them...
...Welles' guess is the sounder...
...Welles' Guess Sounder Reports of popular support for the nationalism and the jealousy of the United States shown by the Buenos Aires dictatorship reach us with distressing frequency...
...To do that is thoroughly justified, because the military martinets in power are dangerous men of a definitely totalitarian mind...
...Unfortunately, no...
...but informed observers would be willing to bet that in the long run Mr...
...A Risky Path When the reactionary crowd now in power can do it, they will attempt to challenge Uncle Sam as the provider of "security" by armament, and will seek by selling arms to build up a great sphere of influence in South America...
...When a pro-democratic paper reflects such ebullient strength, outside pressure is not likely to do very much...
...Argentina feels prosperous as well as strong...
...It is a tragedy that, just when we officially stiffen up our relations with the Argentine Government, we fail to enunciate impressive peace aims, fall into the old game of dividing Europe to satisfy rival ambitions, and give slight moral leadership to the Argentine anti-totalitarian forces...
...Anti:U...
...The daily then points out that Argentina's favorable trade balance for 1943 was double that of 1942, and that gold has rapidly increased to 32 million pesos...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 32
