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Argentines have been called "the Yankees of South America." But most Yankees of the U.S. know less about Latin America's most bustling country, its 13,518,239 people and the riches of its fabulously fertile "humid pampa" than they know about Novosibirsk.
Most Americans know even less about Argentina's government. They know little beyond the fact that it consists of a junta of military men whose bristling nationalism and thorny relations with the U.S. State Department have caused it to be known vaguely as fascist. The answers to two questions which might clarify the situation are obscured by the fogs of Argentine and Hemisphere politics: 1) In Argentina's ruling junta who is the strong man? 2) Is Argentina a Good Neighbor?
The answer to Question No. 1 is: Juan Domingo Perón. But who is Juan Domingo Perón?
Up from the Campo Mayo. One day last year Porteños (citizens of Buenos Aires) were alarmed by the regular thud of military boots on the Avenida General Paz, the rumble of moving caissons. From the Campo Mayo, Army headquarters, dashed truckloads of soldiers with machine guns. They converged on Casa Rosada, Argentina's Government House. In less than half a day the corrupt, unpopular, three-year administration of President Ramon S. Castillo was ended.
General Arturo Rawson became President, ruled Argentina for almost two days. While Porteños, and the rest of the world, looked on in some amazement, the Presidential guard was changed at the double quick, and swifter than the opening of a trap door, General Pedro Ramirez succeeded President Arturo Rawson.
Most Argentines were delighted. They hoped that even a succession of short-order Presidents would be better than dictatorial President Castillo. The U.S. State Department quickly recognized the new revolutionary regime. It hoped that Argentina would cooperate in the war against the Axis. But the U.S. soon realized that Argentina's new Government was, if anything, less cooperative than the old one. Argentines soon realized that President Ramirez was President in name only.
The real power in Argentina was a group of Army officers called the GOU.The initials stood for "Gobierno, Orden, Unidad" (Government, Order, Unity). But the GOU group was soon nicknamed "The Colonels." And it soon became clear that the Colonel of the Colonels was Juan Domingo Perón. He was Vice President, War Minister and Secretary of Labor and Welfare. If Americans had never heard of him, neither had many Argentines.
Up from the Chilly South. Juan Perón did not come from the aristocratic estanciero (big rancher) class, which has long dominated Argentina's politics and social life. He was born and brought up on his father's middle-sized ranch in the cold, windswept south—Argentina's Wild West. His early life reads like a Montana boyhood. He learned to ride almost before he could walk. For recreation he fought with the children of the hired gauchos, hunted wild turkeys on the southern pampas.
At 20 Perón was a full lieutenant—one of the youngest in the Army. For years he served as an instructor in military schools, taught military skiing on the Alpine runs of the Andes. In Army circles the word spread that Juan Perón was an unusually intelligent, alert professional soldier.