CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The military defense is one of the variables that explains the creation of public companies and the intervention of the State as a producer in Argentina in the 20th century. The Armed Forces managed an important part of Argentine industry and had a notable influence on the orientation of economic policy, specially since the 1940s. This industrialization promoted by the military was not only aimed at satisfying the demands of ?national defense?, but an important part of that production was also destined to the needs of civilian use or was driven by the requirements of other state organisms; then, without abandoning its original concerns, the objectives were broadened and converged with the purpose of governments to promote industrialization and meet the requirements of the economy as a whole, affected by insufficient foreign exchange. The culminating moment of the military industrial activities took place during the decade of 1970, before being dismantled with the loss of political power of the military sector and the height of the neoliberal policies.However, within this concern for the deployment of the base industry not all forces acted in the same way. In addition to giving an account of the general role of the military industries, in order to account for these trajectories, we will conduct a comparative study of the experience with basic petrochemicals (where the Army took direct involvement) and aluminum (developed by national private capital driven by Air Force). In sum, we are interested in this paper to appreciate both the mechanisms used and the achievements made with these two ?tactics? derived from the same ?strategy?, born of the military need to ensure the local provision of ?strategic materials? and whose results effectively modified the industrial structure of Argentina.