Cold War, Peronism and Anti-Communism in Argentina (1943-1983)

BOHOSLAVSKY, ERNESTO; FRANCO, MARINA

Argentina´s right-wing universe during the democratic period (1983-2023). Processes, actors, and issues.

Routledge

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2024; p. 8 - 22

Opposition between Peronism and Anti-peronism has largely been considered the most important political conflict in Argentina during the second half of the twentieth century. Scholarly literature tended to perceive that recurrent coups d’état and political instability in the period between 1943 and 1983 were mainly due to the lack of capacity of the political system to absorb and neutralise that bitter conflict. Supposedly, the intense Anti-peronism displayed by the ruling class and rightist parties would have left very little political room for the Cold War problems that had affected more strongly other Latin American countries. However, this chapter proposes that Anti-Communism actually played a relevant political role by promoting long-lasting repressive manu militari regimes and by fueling Armed Forces’ messianic political projects. Argentine political and military elites shared some particular ways of understanding what Peronism was and could eventually become in the frame not only of national scenarios but also at the transnational level with Cold War ideologies. The chapter discusses the enactment of repressive laws, the apocalyptic military perceptions on communist expansion, and links with Peronist unions and activists.