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Dirty War (Argentina, 1976-83) (view source)
Revision as of 02:43, November 5, 2016
, 02:43, November 5, 2016no edit summary
With the initial support of the majority of the Argentinian population, the military regime undertook widespread kidnappings, torture, and murder — not only of the violent guerrillas of the left but also the unarmed leftist political activists, guerrilla sympathizers, and their lawyers and families. The war against subversion was viewed within the military's National Security Doctrine as the begining of "World War III," which it defined as a struggle against the efforts of communism for world supremacy. In seven years as many as 30,000 Argentines were either killed or imprisoned.
With the initial support of the majority of the Argentinian population, the military regime undertook widespread kidnappings, torture, and murder — not only of the violent guerrillas of the left but also the unarmed leftist political activists, guerrilla sympathizers, and their lawyers and families. The war against subversion was viewed within the military's National Security Doctrine as the begining of "World War III," which it defined as a struggle against the efforts of communism for world supremacy. In seven years as many as 30,000 Argentines were either killed or imprisoned.
==Military junta's downfall==
Although the military junta carried out its successful war against suspected subversives throughout its entire existence, it was ironically a foreign foe allied with the Chilean military government of General Augusto Pinochet which brought the Argentinian regime to an end. In the early 1980s, it became clear to both the world and the Argentinian people that the military junta was behind the brutal disappearances and imprisonment of tens of thousands of kidnappings. The junta, facing increasing opposition over its human rights record, as well as mounting allegations of corruption, sought to allay domestic criticism by launching a successful campaign to regain ''Las Islas Malvinas'' (the Falkland Islands).
British military historian Martin Middlebrook argues that the military junta occupied the Falklands/Malvinas in order to suppress its opposition, principally the exiled Peronists, because the cost - measured in terms of legitimacy - of suppressing their supporters was relatively low at the beginning of the junta's rule. But the cost of suppression increased over time because of the military regime's ruthless suppression of anyone who supported the guerrillas, its failed economic policies, and its defeat in the Falkland Islands/Malvinas War, and thus it had to tolerate its opposition and eventually return power to civilian authority.
== Notes ==
== Notes ==