The Braden Campaign and Anglo-American Relations in Argentina, 1945–6

Abstract

In 1941 the publisher Henry Luce hailed the dawn of the American Century and summoned the USA to reshape the world in its own image.¹ There was no more dramatic representative of this imperial vision than Spruille Braden, who became US Ambassador to Argentina in April 1945. Braden believed that the future of Latin America depended upon the development of middle-class democracy linked with American goods and capital.² In Buenos Aires he rapidly established himself as the champion of freedom, reviving civilian opposition to the military regime and pressing for elections. His campaign against Fascism in the shape of Colonel Juan Perón reopened the wartime rift with Argentina. It also revived the debate with Britain about the Argentine question. British officials looked on with horror as Braden brought the country to the brink of civil war with little consideration for British interests. As one diplomat complained, the US ambassador was taking risks with ‘the property of others, especially ours’.³ The Braden episode confirmed British prejudices about the immaturity of American policy. The problem for London, as it had been since 1942, was to reconcile the protection of British interests in Argentina with the maintenance of the wider Anglo-American relationship on which British security and economic stability ultimately depended.