Peron: A BIOGRAPHY
by Joseph Page
List Price:
Our Price: $8.99
You Save: $16.01 (64%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Joseph PageEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1983-07-12
ISBN: 0394522974
Number of pages: 594
Publisher: Random House
Book Reviews of Peron: A BIOGRAPHY
Book Review: The Virtuoso "Conductor"
Summary: 4 Stars
I was in college in the United States during the period of Peron's return to power, the collapse of his wife Isabel's regime and the subsequent "Dirty War" carried out by the military dictatorship that followed them. I was amazed at the extreme passion the Peronist masses showed for their beloved leader and, on the other hand, the way the military junta that overthrew Isabel quite openly carried out a reign of terror in a country that was not behind the Iron Curtain but was a part of the Western world and continued to carry out normal relations with the rest of the world. Everybody knew that the main torture center was the Naval Mechanics School and that the death squads of the notorious right-wing "AAA" drove around in Ford Falcon's. The regime's methods were right out in the open and it seemed they wanted people to know what they were doing and couldn't care less what the rest of the civilized world thought.
It seems that Argentina's descent into this hell of repression came about as a result of forces galvanized by one man, Juan Domingo Peron. Argentina, like the other countries of Latin America, although influenced by liberal, constitutionalist influences from the United States and Europe already in the mid-19th century, had great difficulty metamorphasizing into a stable democratic country, in spite of the fact that the population there, unlike in most of Latin America, was primarily of white European origin, without a large number of indingenous, Indian or mixed race people. It wasn't until the beginnning of the 20th century that a true liberal, pro-democratic political movement, called the Radical Civic Union (RCU) came into being, and the first truly free democratic election for President didn't come until about the start of the First World War.
Argentina is a country blessed with natural resources and fertile farmland and became one of the richest countries in the world after World War I increased the demand for its agricultural products. In spite of this, the large working class had no real political representation and they were not, by and large, able to benefit from the wealth the country was generating. Argentina's democratically-minded middle class, which the RCU represented, did not identify politically or socially with the working class, which felt disenfranchised. Finally, as a result of the military coup of 1943, a military junta entered power that claimed to represent the worker's interests for the first time. The leading force in the junta was Peron, who was a Colonel at the time. He went to work to distribute the nation's wealth to this sector for the first time and greatly expanded their rights and benefits, but a darker side of him also showed in his pro-fascist tendencies. He was elected in a fair, democratic election to the Presidency in 1946, but his popularity, along with his charismatic wife, Eva, did not satisfy him, so he began using the law to crack down on the opposition groups. He squandered the nation's wealth bringing about an economic crisis, forcing him to take more and more demagogic stands, finally attacking the Catholic Church and encouraging street violence. The military (from which he himself came) finally decided to take action. An preliminary unsuccessful coup attempt led to indiscriminate bombing of the government center of Buenos Aires in an attempt to liquidate Peron, leading to the killing of hundreds of passersby. This already was a sign that the military, or at least parts of it, which had liberal elements in it, also contained other elements that believed in raw power and was indifferent to the lives of the country's citizens. This military brutality would come back to haunt the country 20 years later. Some time later Peron threw in the towel and resigned, fleeing ignominiously to Paraguay, eventually ending up in Spain some years later. Peronism was ruthlessly suppressed by the succeeding military regimes, but the body politic could not deal with the large, undigestable bloc of voters committed to Peronism and which was now disenfrachised. Attempts by sectors of the RCU led by President Arturo Frondizi were made to coopt the Peronists, but these failed miserably.
It was in exile, while plotting to return to power, that the true cynicism of this man came out. In the 1940's he showed clear symapthy for the Axis powers and resisted American attempts to get Argentina to cooperate in the war against Nazi Germany. By the 1960's he sees that radical Marxists like Fidel Castro and Che Guevera were popular with the young so he started spouting "anti-Imperialist" and "anti-Capitalist" slogans. A major split developes in the Peronist movement back home between "right-wing Peronists" who in reality were basically like European Trade-Unionist Social Democratic party machine politicians, who were interested in bread-and-butter issues for their constituents and the perks of political office for themselves, and a more radical group, which in the late 1960's took on the name "Montoneros" who talked about radical Leftist upheaval in Argentina. Peron encouraged both sides, even seemingly acquiescing (if not actually encouraging) the assassination of the Peronist trade union Leader Augusto Vandor whom he suspected was not completely loyal to him, while letting the Peronist Left do the actual dirty work for him for supposedly "ideological" reasons. One would think cynicism of this type would alienate his followers, but the more the country sank into political chaos and violence in addition to economic difficulties, the more popular he became. Peoples' memories of Peron's presidency seemed to improve with time, with people forgetting the dark side of his rule. The assassination of former military President Pedro Aramburu led to a military reshuffle of the government and the emergence of a liberal, constitutionalist (by Argentine standards) military regime led by General Alejandro Lanusse. Lanusse tried to bring the Peronists fully into the political system, but without Peron himself (Lanusse thougtht, wrongly, that Peron himself would realize he was too old to resume office). Finally, Peron was allowed to visit Argentina and elections were called, but Peron was not allowed to run himself. As the country spiralled into more and more violence, Peron refused to condemn Peronist terror led by the Montoneros, who had taken credit for the murder of Aramburu. He tried to be all things to all people. He referred to himself as a "conductor" of an orchestra, getting everyone to do what he wanted, but many of his followers had other ideas.
Even the liberal RCU, led by Ricardo Balbin, finally reconciled himself to the Peronist revival (he had been arrested and harrassed by Peron in the 1950's) in government. The Peronist party, led by a "left-wing" Peronist, Hector Campora, was elected President under the slogan "Campora to the Presidency, Peron to Power!" Many felt that Campora was sympathetic to the left-wing radicals and the Montoneros and this frightened many non-Peronists in the country.
Peron then made his final return to Argentina, and from the moment he arrived, Campora's power evaporated and new elections were held in 1973 which Peron won easily. Balbin and the RCU didn't even put up much of a fight, apparently believing only Peron could bring the country together. Well, Peron couldn't. The movement began to fractionate as Peron, apparently influenced by his mysterious assisstant Jose Lopez Rega, who despised the Peronist Left was forced to take sides and finally take a clear stand. Violence increased as the Peronist Right and Left battled each other. A high ranking follower of Peron in the trade union movement, Jose Rucci, was assassinated, apparently by Montoneros.
Peron died and left his widow, the Vice President, an insoluable dilemma, which she was unable to deal with. Ultimately, she was overthrown and a new military regime, very different from Lanusse's liberal one, came into power and with brute force, eliminated the Montoneros and the more radical ERP terrorist groups, in additon to thousands of non-violent political opponents of the regime (the "disappeared"), also leading to the disastrous Falkland Islands War with Britain. This was Peron's legacy to the country.
The author of the book seems to have an ambivalent attitude to the Peron's. He praises him for "empowering the poor" and he also says that the claims that Juan and Eva stole huge amounts of money during his first time in power were greatly exaggerated. He says Peron, after the death of Evita, seemed to lose interest in being President, and thus he did not actively resist the coup that ousted him. In exile, the "conductor" played different groups off each other, telling them different things, and in the end all these intrigues blew up in the Peronist's face.
Although the book was written in the 1980's it is still very relevant for today. The Peronists still are very powerful but they seemed to learn their lesson and are more respectful of the democratic process. However, in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez seems to be be replaying all the mistakes Peron made in his first Presidency....he was given a country with a lot of money in the bank, but he squanders it while using more and more anti-democratic methods to quash opposition. Latin America has a lot to learn from Peron's and Argentina's misadventures.
Biographies & Memoirs Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Biographies & Auto-Biographies I Like
The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics)by Suetonius, Michael Grant
Penguin Classics; Published: 1957-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $32.95
Forgotten Soldier : The Classic WWII Autobiography (Brassey's Commemorative Series WWII) (Brassey's Commemorative Series Wwii)by Guy Sajer
Brassey's (UK) Ltd; Published: 1990-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Elder Ambrose of Optinaby Sergius Chetverikov
St. Xenia Skete Pr; Published: 1997-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops:
Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legendby James Robertson
MacMillan Reference Books; Published: 1997-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.50
Price in other shops:
The Emperor Constantine (Phoenix Giants)by Michael Grant
Weidenfeld & Nicolson History; Published: 1998-10-12; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
The Mad King: The Life and Times of Ludwig II of Bavariaby Greg King
Citadel; Published: 1996-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $59.39
Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biographyby Jack Hurst
Vintage; Published: 1994-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.70
Price in other shops:
Nicholas and Alexandraby Robert K. Massie
Ballantine Books; Published: 2000-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops:
Lincolnby David Herbert Donald
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1996-11-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Father Arseny, 1893-1973: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father : Being the Narratives Compiled by the Servant of God Alexander Concerning His Spiritual FatherSt. Vladimir's Seminary Press; Published: 1998-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.00
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Argentina Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers)Duke University Press; Published: 2002-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.49
Price in other shops:
EvitaMADONNA; Release date: 1998-03-25; DVD
Best price: $6.84
Price in other shops:
Peron and the Enigmas of Argentinaby Robert D. Crassweller
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1996-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops: