Last week Juan Peron showed the world that the totalitarianism in Argentina, however popular with his voters, can take the same form as totalitarianism anywhere, from Mussolini's Italy to Stalin's Russia. With gangster violence and drumhead judgment, his government struck another blow at a great newspaper, La Prensa, that dared to print news unfavorable to his regime. His police hounded and arrested two U.S. correspondents. If there had been any hope of a free press in Argentina, it lay shattered by the work of a night and a day.
The blow fell after more than 1,200 employees of La Prensa...