Action Ahead

The U.S. State Department last week recalled Ambassador Norman Armour from Buenos Aires. Next day, as if in explanation, it released a pointed analysis of a speech delivered on June 10 by Argentina's War Minister Juan Domingo Peron.

Said the State Department: "In startling similarity ... to Mussolini, Peron wishes to dedicate Argentina to ... a warlike life . . . which will inevitably lead that country to the same tragic consequences suffered by Italy."

In Argentina the effect of these moves was not conclusive. Ambassador Armour's recall merely emphasized the fact that the Argentine Government had not enjoyed U.S. recognition since last February. Said the man-in-the-Calle-Florida: "What difference does it make? There's no recognition anyway." But the simultaneous departure of the Ambassadors of Peru, Paraguay and Chile (with others planning to follow) was a slap in the face for Argentine militarists.

Peron's June 10 speech had been little noted by Argentines, who were neither surprised nor greatly disturbed by his militarism and lack of interest in Allied victory. But the State Department's hostile analysis (suppressed for 24 hours, then defiantly given top play in the newspapers) worried them a bit. Protected from foreign criticism by a shield of ironbound censorship, the average Argentine had been left to believe that outsiders loved Argentina. Now, for some undisclosed reason, he was given a glimpse of the truth.

The real shock came not from Washington but from London: in response to U.S. urging, the British reluctantly recalled their Ambassador, Sir David Victor Kelly. Argentine nationalists have long believed that Britain was their firm, beef-eating friend, even if the U.S. was not. Ambassador Kelly's recall, threatening joint action by Britain and the U.S., shook this happy notion.

The U.S. State Department seemed to be planning some positive action in regard to Argentina, perhaps the long-rumored trade embargo. But this might be a tricky weapon. Argentines loathe outside coercion even more than they loathe their blundering militarists.

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