ARGENTINA: Props into Prods

When he was elected President of Argentina in 1946, Juan Domingo Perón had two visible means of political support. One was the army, whose ruling clique he headed. The other was labor, especially what he dubbed the descamisados (literally: shirtless ones), whose favor he had won (by wage boosts, social benefits, etc.) in a shrewdly realistic move to offset any fickleness among his army pals. In the past month many Argentines had noted that the army, fed up with mounting inflation and the politicking of Perón's wife Eva, had ceased to be the prop it once was. When the third...

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