The Answer Is No

No sooner had Evita Peron "bowed to the will of the people" and accepted nomination for Argentina's vice presidency, than speculation began that she might not run after all.

On second thought, the "popular" demand for a Peron-Peron ticket seemed less than overwhelming. Only 250,000, instead of the expected 2,000,000, had turned out for last fortnight's monster meeting at which the Perons said yes. Some Peronista chieftains began to complain that too many traditions were being broken too fast and that the Sefiora had better restrain her ambitions for a while. At the last minute, moreover, Argentina's soldiers were reported bridling at the unspeakable thought that if Peron should die, a woman would be commander in chief of the Argentine army.

Finally, there was some polite snickering over the possibility that Evita was a victim of her own vanity. Though her own friends vow she is 32, the Argentine Who's Who, in a biography dictated by Evita herself, states that she is 29--a year less than the age set by the constitution for candidates for the nation's two top offices. Chirped the New York Daily News: "Eva would rather be 29 than Veep."

In the midst of such talk last week, the government radio and press announced that Evita would have something to say. That night, dressed in a severe black suit and a high-necked black blouse, she took microphone in hand. In a voice trembling with emotion, hoarse and strained, she said: "I want to communicate an irrevocable and definite decision to my people, a decision I have taken by myself, to resign the noted honor given me by the open forum of the 22nd."

"I am not resigning my work," she sobbed, "just the honors. I shall continue as a humble collaborator of Peron." All she asked was that history note that "there was a woman alongside General Peron, who took to him the hopes and needs of the people, and her name was Evita."

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