General Ongania and the Argentine [Military] Revolution of the Right: Anti- Communism and Morality, 1966-1970

Home , Argentine Revolution, Cordobazo, History of Argentina

HAOL, Núm. 17 (Otoño, 2008), 65-79 ISSN 1696-2060

GENERAL ONGANIA AND THE ARGENTINE [MILITARY] REVOLUTION OF THE RIGHT: ANTI- COMMUNISM AND MORALITY, 1966-1970

Cyrus Stephen Cousins University of Texas, United States. E-mail: [email protected]

Recibido: 2 Julio 2008 / Revisado: 31 Julio 2008 / Aceptado: 3 Septiembre 2008 / Publicación Online: 15 Octubre 2008

Abstract: This project analyzes the relationship expended a tremendous amount of energy trying between the rhetoric of Argentina’s fifth to save Argentina from moral degradation, and it military dictatorship on youth, morality, and linked these efforts to its anti-communist communism, and the government’s cultural position. In particular, Gen. Onganía and his campaigns executed from 1966-1973. During cabinet utilized the police to cleanse the supposed “La Revolución Argentina,” General Juan decadence of Argentina’s middle-class youth Carlos Onganía and his cabinet targeted the through a morality campaign, clamp down on “immorality” of the youth because they believed communism in the national universities, and the internal threat of communism had degraded implement anti-communist and censorship the country’s traditional Catholic values. By legislation, even before dealing with economic constructing a moral and spiritual culture problems. through a crusade against immorality, intervention in the national universities, With a consensus among the military and Gen. censorship and anti-communist legislation, Onganía’s civilian cabinet members that the conservative officers thought they could shield failing economy warranted immediate action, Argentina’s youth from further infiltration of why did the new government worry so much leftist ideologies and preserve the nation’s future about morality and link its culture campaigns to leaders. the eradication of communism? Based on the Keywords: Bureaucratic Authoritarianism, La officers’ speeches and the military’s Revolución Argentina, Gen. Juan Carlos revolutionary pamphlets, Catholic Nationalist Onganía, Catholic Nationalist, conservatism. theology, anti-communist and censorship ______legislation, magazines and literature, and Argentine and U.S. newspapers, this article INTRODUCTION demonstrates that cultural and societal factors motivated and directed the administration’s n June 1966, in the midst of yet another reform efforts, before they established a clear economic crisis, the Argentine military seized plan for economic stabilization. The anti- I control of the country, heralding their fifth communist rhetoric and actions of authoritative coup d’état of the century as “La Revolución and conservative Catholic-minded officers and Argentina.” Under the leadership of General Juan the Buenos Aires police targeted the Carlos Onganía, the military government asserted “immorality” of the modern youth because they that communism threatened Argentina’s future, believed the internal threat of communism had and that social, political, and economic stability degraded the country’s traditional Catholic could only occur with its eradication. In their values. By constructing a moral and spiritual speeches, the generals not only mentioned the culture, the generals thought they could shield need to combat the spread of leftist ideology, but Argentina’s youth from further exposure to leftist also emphasized an immediate need to deal with ideology and mold them into the future stagnant economic growth, high inflation, fiscal conservative and Catholic leadership. irresponsibility, depleted national savings and declining foreign investments. However, during the first six months, the new government

1. THEORY, HISTORIOGRAPHY AND Catholic Nationalist theologians during the THE 1966 MILITARY COUP decades leading up to the nation’s final coups. The theologians’ teachings spoke that communist This article departs from much of the scholarship doctrine and practice resulted from modern influenced by the theory of Bureaucratic liberalism, carried to its ultimate consequences5. Authoritarianism during the past twenty years1. In other words, the radical cultural changes Simply put, Guillermo O’Donnell’s theory occurring during the 1960s lead to society’s argues that Argentine military regimes, such as acceptance of alternative leftist ideologies. These the one from 1966-1972, established authoritarian leftist ideas challenged Argentina’s Catholic rule for the purpose of working with technocrats traditions. Both Avellaneda and Osiel indicate to implement liberal economic policies that that the military officers of the final dictatorship would reverse the ills brought with prolonged modeled their cultural reforms on those employed reliance on “easy” or “import-substitution” during the fifth dictatorship. Thus, this project industrialization. However, rather than focusing fills a missing piece in the scholarship by on economic determinants or political resolutions analyzing how officers of the fifth military that impelled the military to establish dictatorship sought to reform the cultural and authoritarian rule, or explaining how the new social spaces inhabited by the country’s middle- government attempted to bring economic class youth by combating communism and stabilization, this project follows critics who have preserving Argentina’s Catholic values. argued that Latin American military governments were motivated by concerns other than industrial After the military officers seized control of the development during the 1960s and 1970s2. Gen. country with their coup d’état on June 29, 1966, Onganía and his fellow officers had a clear plan they articulated the country’s quagmire of to restore the country’s traditional Catholic values problems and their goals to solve them in various and combat the spread of communism, even documents and speeches. The military believed before they had determined how to address the that previous civilian leaders had failed to failing economy. Moreover, after the most establish order and stability -necessary intense phase of their moral crusade, Gen. prerequisites for addressing Argentina’s political Onganía and his cabinet members continued their ineptness, economic stagnation, and social struggle against immorality during the later instability. According to the generals, the actions economic stabilization program (1967-1970) by of previous administrations had led to “the positing it within anti-communist and censorship bankruptcy of the principle of authority and a legislation. Thus, this project responds to recent lack of order and discipline”6. The result, Gen. challenges to consider Argentine military politics Onganía declared, was that “our country was and popular resistance from a cultural perspective transformed into a scene of anarchy characterized by analyzing the relationship between the by the collision of sectors with conflicting military’s discourse on communism, morality, the interests, a situation aggravated by the lack of modern youth, and the actual campaigns targeted basic social order”7. Thus, the first and most at this sector of Argentine society3. important step would be the “achievement of order within the present situation, based on the This project also follows the work of two integral use of the principles of order, authority, scholars who have analyzed why the Argentine responsibility and discipline”8. Implied in the military of the sixth and final dictatorship (1976- officers’ rhetoric is that civilian leaders, 1983) included programs of cultural reform with particularly the county’s previous president, measures to root-out communist influences. Arturo Umberto Illia, had failed to establish Andrés Avellaneda argues that Argentine military authority by not maintaining order and discipline. dictatorships actively placed censorship on Their declaration to establish order through culture because of their motivation to attempt to military authority sent a clear message to the construct an Argentine lifestyle reflecting nation and the rest of the world: the country’s traditional Catholic values. Yet, restoring salvation would come through military rule. Only Argentina’s Catholic values in society also through military leadership could reforms be required a fierce campaign to weed out influences implemented and followed. of Marxism and Communism4. Another historian of the final dictatorship, Mark Osiel, argues that With the myriad of economic problems plaguing the military’s fight against communism coincided the country, Gen. Onganía and his fellow with its Catholic orientation because officers of officers included vague plans to reform the the armed forces developed relationships with economy in their discourse to legitimize their

66 © Historia Actual Online 2008 Cyrus Stephen Cousins General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution seizure of power and bolster popular support. challenged conservative styles. Even after the They promised that the new military military coup, one paper ran articles about government would “eliminate the deep-rooted women’s fashions that informed the young causes of the present economic stagnation.” consumers “underwear is also outerwear. They would establish “conditions to make Whether you are going to bed or going out, you feasible a great economic expansion [based on] can wear the same thing”13. The Buenos Aires the human and natural resources available to the Herald taunted young women to push country”9. Nevertheless, a concise plan to Argentina’s cultural norms by indicating that the stabilize the economy was less clear in their “Brazilian Fashion Show Reveals More Short rhetoric. During the first six months in office, Skirts and Exposing Blouses”14. As in many inter-cabinet fighting over a plan for economic countries during the 1960s, conservative and reform deterred the military government from traditional parents became increasingly fulfilling their economic promises. The U.S. concerned with the youth’s radical identities and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) noted in its means of expression. report of Argentina’s economic reforms, that by the end of 1966 “little had been accomplished in In many cases, the emergence of these identities the economic field due to differences of how to coincided with covert and overt forms of carry out economic reforms”10. The members of rebellion. Historian Valeria Manzano has pointed the cabinet could not agree on a plan for out that youth rebellion constituted a “crucial economic reform. However, all believed that feature of ‘being young’ in the 1960s that found leftist ideologies and modernization had led to expression not only in the disruptive aesthetic the nation’s loss of moral or spiritual projects or the troublesome intergenerational convictions, especially among the youth. relations but also […] in the ‘private’ contestation of the prevalent sexual norms”15. Birth control 2. THE DECADE OF THE 1960S AND pills and changing attitudes toward sexual MILITARY DISCOURSE behavior modified the relations between Argentines in the urban centers of Following similar worldwide developments, modernization16. Argentine youth developed their Argentina passed through a stage of own sexual culture by bifurcating between “sex modernization and cultural radicalization during for procreation” and “sex for pleasure.” The the 1960s. Argentine historian Simón Feldman sexualized youth functioned as a “bridge toward argues that this decade marked a period of new modernization: they brought the ‘new’ into the experimentation in arts, cinema and popular middle-class families, and this time, as in almost culture. The “New Argentine Cinema” became a everywhere else worldwide, the new had to do distinctive element of the “generation of the with the fall of secular prejudices and the relaxing 1960s.” The most “significant development in the of strong patterns of authority”17. Argentine cultural life,” argues Feldman, was “linked to the emergence of new writers, The rapid social and cultural changes during the playwrights, journalists, designers and other 1960s also eroded the position of the family as exponents of our country’s creative spectrum”11. the basic social institution and encouraged the Also during the 1960s, mass production, emergence of psychoanalysis. Individual freedom advertising, and marketing techniques and self-fulfillment replaced old values linked to encouraged the urban middle-classes to consume familial and personal responsibility. Traditional various new products. Argentine youth became Catholic norms, such as those dictating that more visible and began to establish distinct marriage lasted a lifetime and the primary identities. Living in an age of worldwide purpose centered on raising functional children communication allowed many young people to for society, slowly lost their value. Unhappy emulate the new and provocative Western dress, marriage partners turned to separation or divorce. music, fads, fashions and cultural patterns. A pair of jeans became the universal article of clothing Changes in the traditional concept of the family and defined the youth’s modernity12. Enticing and of women’s role in the home and in society descriptions and pictures of women modeling the engendered the reception of the growing scanty new styles emerging from Paris and New professions related to psychoanalysis. For many, York found their way into the Argentine papers. psychoanalytic discourse provided a belief To catch up on the latest fashions, young system, a therapeutic method that could bring Argentine women simply needed to open up a order out of the anxieties and uncertainties that newspaper to learn how other girls worldwide accompanied rapid modernization and cultural

© Historia Actual Online 2008 67 General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution Cyrus Stephen Cousins changes18. Psychiatrists and psychoanalysts community and restore the nation’s Catholic encouraged both parents and adolescents to free values during their tenure in office. themselves from society’s artificial constraints19. Psychoanalysis also became an item of Gen. Onganía’s emphasis on spirituality, morals, consumption that provided status to the middle- and religious values reflected the military’s class obsessed with participating in and defining traditionally conservative background, their their own modernity. Common conversation dissatisfaction with the by-products of began to employ terms borrowed from the progressive and liberal cultural experimentation booming fields of psychoanalysis and sociology, occurring throughout the globe in the 1960s. and by the late 1960s popular magazines, fiction, More importantly, their discourse reveals the essays, TV shows, and theater were loaded with influences that Catholic Nationalist theologians psychoanalytic jargon and concepts20. With had on the military. Not only did the generals use radical cultural changes occurring during the religious rhetoric to gain popular support and 1960s that challenged the family unit and caused legitimization among sectors of society that the youth to cast off moral constraints, it is no shared similar values, but they also intertwined it surprise that the role of morality and of religious with their plans to combat the spread of values dominated military officers’ discussions of communism. the goals of their revolution. Historian Mark Osiel has analyzed why the After assuming power, the military made it clear Argentine armed forces of the sixth and final that a central goal of the Revolution would dictatorship (1976-1983) wove religious rhetoric involve constructing a moral and spiritual and programs of cultural reform with measures to community built on traditional Catholic values root-out communist influences. He argues that the and upheld by a strong authoritarian government. final dictatorship’s fight against communism In the Acts of the Revolution, the generals stated a coincided with religion. Officers at that time key goal would be to “consolidate our spiritual justified their seizure of power and their and moral values” and “defend our spiritual counterrevolution as a “just war,” one that was tradition”21. The onslaught of cultural changes, in “essential to preserve and defend Christian the minds of many conservative officers, had values”26. Consequently, as Osiel demonstrates, “caused the disruption of the spiritual unity of the the speeches of Argentine generals who Argentine people, generalized alienation and advocated this attack on the nation’s intellectuals, skepticism, apathy and loss of National concentrated mainly on ethical issues: the need feeling”22. Their discourse focused on making the for a stronger sense of cultural coherence, people “believe” again, to create a new moral national unity, and moral community. Osiel notes consensus around old values, and to restore a that the generals of the final dictatorship modeled spiritual community. their cultural reforms on those employed by officers of the Argentine Revolution. However, In the Directive for the Planning and Action of such ideas did not originate from Gen. Onganía. the Government, the new administration Long before the 1960s and 1970s, officers had articulated goals to construct a new moral order. started to embrace the teachings of Catholic Gen. Onganía and his cabinet would strive for the Nationalist theologians within the barracks27. “attainment of a wide understanding and spiritual community among the population”23. Spiritual During the years leading up to the Argentine unity among the people would reorient Argentine Revolution, Catholic Nationalists based their culture according to its Catholic values. The theology on the ideas on the Nationalist administration promised “to maintain firmly movement already present in Argentina. national sovereignty, defending our territorial Historian David Rock has argued that near the integrity, spiritual values, style of life and great end of the nineteenth century, in reaction to the moral ends that form the essence of Liberal party’s anticlerical movements, the nationality”24. Included in specific plans for Catholic Church bridged the anti-liberal reform during the second year of the Argentine sentiments of Argentina’s conservative Federalist Revolution, the administration wrote that if party with the incipient Nationalist movement. necessary, it would even “establish legislation By the early twentieth century, the movement had facilitating the spiritual unity and the moral become the expression of the deep-rooted consolidation of the population”25. According to historical forces in Argentina that challenged and the generals’ discourse, they would dedicate their resisted the mainstream liberal conceptions of the reform efforts to construct a moral order, spiritual state and society28. Nationalists developed their

68 © Historia Actual Online 2008 Cyrus Stephen Cousins General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution own peculiar jargon intertwined with Catholic liberalism, carried to its ultimate consequences in theology. They called their movement an its rejection of the Western Christian order. Thus, “authentically Argentine struggle for Catholic one cannot separate communism from truth and Hispanic tradition,” which was the liberalism.” Genta reminded the officers that “the enemy of “liberal philosophy, formal democracy, political obligatory provision [of the armed ideological colonization, and new forms of forces] is to oppose a threat that compromises the European and North American imperialism”29. very existence of the Fatherland, for example, the However, within the military barracks, Catholic revolutionary war unleashed by communism.” Nationalist theologians galvanized the military’s “There is no other mode of action,” Genta ideology. emphasized, but “to counteract and overcome the ideological penetration of Marxist Coming over with Spanish and Italian immigrants communism”35. in the 1920s, an intolerant version of Catholicism merged with the then present Argentine Many Nationalists within the military adopted the Nationalist movement and began to permeate theology of Catholic Nationalists, evident in Argentine political life, especially the military. A personal writings of officers of the Argentine very closely knit relationship between officers Revolution, such as Col. Osiris J. Villegas. and Catholic Nationalist theologians developed in Villegas, who Onganía later appointed as head of the following decades leading up to the Argentine the National Council for Security (CONASE), Revolution. As a result many military schools agreed with Genta that communism symbolized and academies adopted the works of these “the ulcer of extremism,” “a disease corroding thinkers in their curricula. In September 1941, the country’s entrails,” an invisible creeping Nationalist theologian Jordán Bruno Genta “poison” or “cancer.” Above all, it threatened the addressed senior army officers at the Círculo nation’s “classical roots [cultura grecolatina] Militar, the high-class military club in Buenos nourished by religion.” This supposedly Aires. He proclaimed that “warriors represent the dangerous “exotic ideology” necessitated a most esteemed class of the state, [because] the “crusade” to restore “moral purification” and the nation enters into political existence by virtue of “defense of the national soul”36. Furthermore, the war”30. Later, he reflected that “positive law -as Argentine Revolution’s pamphlets reflected the man’s own evanescent creation- was inferior to influence that Catholic Nationalists had on the God’s law, and that the soldier owes his military. During the 1950s and 1960s, they professional duties directly to the nation -whose argued the country had witnessed “the essence is eternal- rather than to its formal law, development of a dangerous ideological which is ephemeral”31. Catholic Nationalist infiltration in its must subtle forms that is […] theologians specifically taught the military that substantially altering the essence of our Catholicism was the most important component traditional and Christian system of life”37. In the of national identity. The military’s mission was to minds of the military officers, the fact that prevent “the breakdown of the country’s spiritual various intellectual circles had started to embrace unity” and subordinate the “state and culture to the idea that socialism was ethically superior to religious doctrine”32. Thus, Nationalist capitalism legitimized these fears. proponents within the military began to perceive themselves as “the last aristocracy” and the During these decades, various military and guardian of a “sacred territory and the western civilian leaders’ mismanagement of the nation’s Christian way of life,” which answered not to the finances, rising inflation, and disproportionate people or the law but to “God and history”33. wealth distribution provoked various groups in Consequently, Rock has argued that Military society, especially Argentina’s intellectuals Nationalists of the twentieth century strove to within the national universities, to accept ideas of uphold authoritarian rule and the concept of the revolutionary change. A Spanish translation of organic society; they opposed liberalism, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks hit the democracy, and communism34. Argentine market in the late 1950s. Gramsci appealed to intellectuals dissatisfied with To preserve the country’s Catholic traditions, the capitalism. He claimed the cultural world was the theologians encouraged the military to target one main battleground of the eternal struggle between of the nation’s subtle enemies, communism. In capitalism and socialism. In so doing, Gramsci his book Guerra contrarevolucionario, published had shifted the leading role of the “revolution” in 1964, Genta argued that “communist doctrine from the proletariat to those same intellectuals and practice are nothing more than modern dissecting his book. After reading his book, many

© Historia Actual Online 2008 69 General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution Cyrus Stephen Cousins of Argentina’s radical youth realized the struggle “has created favorable conditions for a subtle and between global socialism and capitalism aggressive Marxist penetration in all areas of transcended class. Instead of a class struggle national life, and provoked a climate which is between the proletariat and bourgeoisie, historian conducive to the excessive extremism and which Paul Lewis argues, they thought more in the puts the nation in danger of falling before the nebulous category of the people versus the advance of collective totalitarianism”43. oligarchy; the former comprising both the Therefore, in the Directive for the Planning and working and lower-middle-classes and the latter Action of the Government, Gen. Onganía embracing the landowners, urban executives, as promised “to neutralize all types of extremism, well as high military officers38. Only revolution especially communism that is opposed to the could free Argentina from cultural hegemony and spiritual union of the population and is alienated distribute the country’s wealth equally to all from the Argentine historical and cultural members of society. heritage”44. As defenders of Western and Christian society, the military was alarmed at the Argentina and the rest of the world witnessed this attraction that the Cuban Revolution exercised type of revolution carried out in Cuba in 1959. and was horrified by the elements that challenged The Cuban Revolution revealed a Latin America society’s traditional values, such as the new that had risen up against imperialism. According sexual freedoms and avant garde art. Revolution to Argentine historian Luis Alberto Romero, and the modern cultural expressions “seemed “Cuba enshrined the very idea of revolution, the merely different aspects of the same assault on conviction that, despite enormous obstacles, western and Christian values”45. Thus, the reality was malleable and collective human action military intertwined anti-communist discourse could shape it”39. The Cuban Revolution proved with concerns related to the nation’s, and that “voluntarism” works and provided radical specifically the youth’s, lack of spiritual values middle-class intellectuals a formula for revolution and morals. in the name of the oppressed but inert masses40. In the wake of the revolution, radical intellectuals Although the officers’ rhetoric illuminates the and university students in Argentina quickly promises of the Argentine Revolution, social heroized bearded, olive green-clad warriors such history cannot be constructed on lofty goals as Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara. found in political discourse. Rhetoric coming Guevara, an Argentine by birth, emphasized that from the mouths and pens of military officers is a by properly using violence, subalterns could mere shell and is not necessarily equal to action. circumvent the traditional Marxist dialectical Equally important to discourse is how the processes of history and artificially create the military carried out its social and cultural necessary objective conditions for revolution. reforms. Moreover, amidst the officers’ myriad of Guevara became required reading for radicalized written goals to reform society, the promises the young people. In La guerra de guerrillas, government actually attempted to fulfill and the published in 1960, he encouraged his followers timing of its efforts, reveals the rank of that “it is not necessary to wait until all importance such issues posed. The general’s conditions for making revolution exist; the implementation of their rhetoric concerning insurrection can create them”41. During the 1960s communism and religion indicated that first, they the intellectual youth began to envision change believed that leftist ideologies had contributed to produced by their own hands. degrading society’s spirituality and moral values, thus warranting a fierce anti-communist battle. However, although such writings called for social Second, part of combating communism included revolution, the 1966 military dictatorship restructuring society to reflect its Catholic values. included measures to combat leftist ideologies By constructing a moral culture, the officers because they challenged Argentina’s Christian believed they could shield society, especially way of life and had contributed to the youth’s young people, from the advance of communist “degraded” cultural expressions. Communism infiltration. They made their rhetoric reality by must be rooted out, argued Gen. Onganía in a implementing a morality campaign to halt the speech to the nation, for it “corrupts youth with a nation’s immoral actions, especially among the foreign ideology that is destructive of our purest youth. They also combated the spread of leftist spiritual values”42. Furthermore, on the first page ideologies by intervening in the nation’s of the Acts of the Revolution, the officers argued universities. Moreover, both the morality crusade that the myriad of problems the nation faced, and the intervention in the universities occurred including the loss of spiritual and moral values, immediately after the coup, six months before

70 © Historia Actual Online 2008 Cyrus Stephen Cousins General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution Gen. Onganía would finally address the failing campaign “communism, along with ‘immorality’ economy. Later, the government continued its and ‘delinquency,’ was perceived as the great social and cultural reforms through passing and threat to Argentinean society”50. One editorialist enforcing censorship and anti-communist from La Nación articulated the link by stating legislation. that “immorality is one of the faces that Communism shows, especially to young 3. IMMORALITY AND ANTI- people”51. Just as the generals’ rhetoric later COMMUNIST DISCOURSE BECOMES A articulated, youth immorality not only polluted REALITY the youthful bodies and minds, but also, noted the editorialist, opened them to “dissolute ideas, alien On 23 July 1966, not even a month after the to our culture and our nation”52. In many ways, military seized control of the country, the newly the 1960-61 campaign acted as a prelude to the appointed mayor of Buenos Aires, Col. Enrique military’s generalized repression in the decade Schettini, launched a morality campaign aimed at that followed. Near five years later, Margaride addressing the youth’s immorality and combating and Col. Green plunged Buenos Aires into all that affected the traditional Catholic sense of another moral crusade. family. Schettini designated the nephew of Gen. Onganía, naval officer Col. Enrique Green, as the The 1966 morality campaign attempted to secretary of the Municipal Police, and ex-captain prevent the spread of leftist ideologies and Luis Margaride as Col. Green’s lieutenant, immorality by targeting the young middle-class holding the position of head of the General men and women representing the “modern Inspection Board of the Municipality. Col. Green, youth.” The police arrested youth caught necking who had declared that he was “a militant in cars or mingling together with the opposite sex Catholic,” wholeheartedly supported Gen. on street corners53. Spotlights installed to Onganía’s plans to rid society of communist illuminate the city’s park benches supposedly influences and preserve the nation’s morals46. prevented “immoral” public displays of affection54. The General Inspection Division On the same day, in a press conference Col. ordered clubs to improve their lighting and Green and Margaride identified the evils conducted daily inspection of places in which affecting society and rationalized their future rock-and-roll bands played. They also closed remedies. “Many inhabitants of the country,” Col. down popular cinemas and well-know theatres. Green declared, “are ill with a contagious disease Police forces raided the Maipo and Nacional […] immorality”47. According to Col. Green, cabarets (equivalents of the Lido in Paris) and excessive liberal atheism caused by reported errant husbands to their wives55. Boys modernization and the spread of communism who wore their hair long, such as members of one destroyed the pillars of Argentine society, what of Argentina’s first rock and roll bands, Los he called “Argentinidad […] a respect for Beatniks, ended up in jail for violating the police religious and moral principles and historic edicts of public scandal and drunkenness. A tradition”48. Therefore, he stated, “in order for the report emphasized that “their main characteristic decent man and woman to be respected and is that they wear long hair, according to the considered by their co-citizens, it is necessary to fashion imposed by the famous ‘Beatles’”56. Even eliminate undesirable people”49. This was not the girls who wore short miniskirts ended up in jail. first time Argentines had heard rhetoric such as Young Argentine women found themselves in a Col. Green’s or witnessed a morality campaign. quandary. On the one hand, newspapers celebrated and department stores sold the new Luis Margaride, appointed by President Auturo modern and provocative fashions originating Frondizi, had headed an earlier morality from Europe and the United States, on the other campaign, from October 1960 until May 1961. hand, the police arrested girls who wore them57. Margaride’s moral crusade aimed at preserving the traditional family structure and protecting the Furthermore, Col. Green and Margaride backed nation’s youth from delinquency and immorality. up the officers’ discourse that linked youthful Police officials invoked edicts targeting immorality with the corrupting influences of drunkenness, public disorder, immorality, modernization and communism. During a homosexuality and prostitution. Yet, the spread television program, Col. Green promised the of communism also concerned patrons and nation that “we will repress in a concrete way all supporters of the morality campaign. Historian pornographic magazines. We do not have to Manzano argues that during the 1960-61 forget that these are the bases for communist

© Historia Actual Online 2008 71 General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution Cyrus Stephen Cousins penetration among our youth”58. In the first two before, the traditional mission outfitted children weeks of the campaign, Col. Green ordered with useful skills to make a living and become police to confiscate at least twenty-seven sexually productive citizens, now in the midst of a decade provocative magazines from newsstands, such as in cultural, social and political flux, many began imported Playboy magazines59. to see the schools, particularly the national universities, as a promoter of social change64. Although the campaign had the support of During the 1960s, young academics became municipal authorities in Buenos Aires, the increasingly critical of society, politics and military government, and police forces, not especially the military. Provocative literature, everyone consented to its extreme measures. The written by fellow university students, sharpened middle-class youth during the 1960s had the students’ criticisms against the military. absorbed the collective projects of liberal social and cultural agents: modernizing literature, A former president of the Argentine University television programs, consumption patterns and Federation, Juan José Sebreli criticized the parents who embraced the advice of psychiatrists morality campaign that occurred five years earlier and psychoanalysts challenging traditional social in his widely read 1965 best-seller, Buenos Aires: norms. Hence, to target the “immoral” and vida cotidiana y alienación. “The supposed moral “modern” youth meant also attacking all of these crisis in the country,” argued Sebreli “is a way of agents, mostly adults. While some of the diverting attention from the real economic and conservative circles of society might have agreed political crisis. The consequence of this stupid with the ideological basis of the Argentine repression is of course a hidden corruption, Revolution, their silence regarding the morality increasingly dangerous and sordid”65. One year campaign directed against the Argentine youth after Sebreli’s book was published, university proved their uneasiness with the military youth found themselves the target of another government’s attack on the by-products of a moral crusade. Some students must have modernizing culture60. Even the Argentine press reflected on the irony Sebreli had articulated. was silent about the most controversial aspects of Why did the government invest time and energy the morality campaign, possibly due to economic to dictate what they could wear and how they and political measures used to discourage severe could express their sexuality, when Gen. Onganía criticism of the Revolution61. and his cabinet still had done nothing to fulfill their promise to stabilize the economy, end In late November 1966, the municipal leaders and inflation, and produce jobs for the growing Gen. Onganía’s administration seemed to hear number of university graduates? The students’ the popular discontent. A memorandum leaked to frustrations expressed by authors such as Sebreli Schettini from the Secretary of State Information, often translated into radical criticism of the known as SIDE (Secretaria de Informaciones del military’s staunch belief in Catholic Nationalist Estado), pushed the mayor to take action. The theology. Furthermore, dissatisfaction with the disclosed letter indicated the military felt Col. political and economic decisions of the military Green had been too extreme in carrying out his and elite, and alternative solutions to capitalism crusade and was hurting the Revolutionary found in Gramsci’s writings and voiced by image62. After a brief quarrel, the mayor revolutionaries such as Guevara, helped fan the dismissed Col. Green and accepted the flame of student radicalization within the national resignation of Margaride, ending the visible universities during the 1960s. morality crusade. However, surveillance and repression of young men and women took on Critical university students embraced leftist many different forms during the Argentine ideologies and ideas of revolution within the Revolution, including state intervention in the national universities and began to voice their national autonomous universities, the heart of dissatisfactions through protest. At the time of the supposed youth immorality and the alleged coup, both students and professors participated in bastion of leftist ideologies. more than twelve national leftist groups, ranging from Marxist Nationalists to Maoists, Trotskyists, From 1958 to 1967, as matriculation in the Revolutionary Left (Guevaristas), and the official national universities rose, perceptions of the Communist Party66. The leftist political groups’ function of the university began to change. high membership provided evidence for the During those years, the nation’s total university military that intellectuals within the national youth swelled with a 75 percent increase in universities had become dangerously radical in enrollment from 137,673 to 240,45263. Whereas

72 © Historia Actual Online 2008 Cyrus Stephen Cousins General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution their political activism through their unchecked political groups and ended the old tripartite consumption and discussion of Marxist literature. system of shared university administrative power71. That evening, in response to the Understandably, Gen. Onganía and his cabinet students’ protest against the government’s new members believed that the state of the national law, the Ministry of the Interior, Enrique universities had strayed far from their view of the Martínez Paz, ordered more than a hundred function of higher education and warranted federal agents to restore order. They unloaded intervention. The university, Gen. Onganía had from police assault vehicles into the plazas in declared, is the “organ forming national character front of several departments of the National and the transmitter of the most precious part of University of Buenos Aires. Within the our spiritual heritage.” Communism “corrupts Department of Exact Sciences, students and youth with a foreign ideology that is destructive department members stood poised behind doors of our purest spiritual values”67. The discourse of barred by desks, chairs, and chains. Receiving no the Argentine Revolution indicated that Onganía response to their demands to evacuate, the police and his cabinet members had obviously taken busted into the building and filled the halls with Catholic Nationalist theologian Jordán Genta tear gas. Police officers then lined up in two rows seriously. Even as early as September 1943, and forced the dean, assistant dean, several while serving as the government’s delegate professors, and more than 200 students to run the (interventor) in the national university of Rosario, gauntlet as they used their rifle butts and batons Genta had stated that the national universities had to batter them unmercifully. At the end of the been “taken advantage of by the Marxists to lay confrontation, more than 400 students from the the conditions for the total subversion of the University of Buenos Aires found themselves in principle of authority”68. Twenty years later, the paddy cars, handcuffed and arrested; 30 of Genta again reminded the officers that “it is the them had been sent to the hospital72. intellectuals who are the protagonists of subversion, not the masses.” He stressed that “the After what was called the “Night of the Long national universities are today the central Batons,” Martínez Paz placed the system of headquarters of the communist ruling class within higher education under the control of Carlos our country.” Especially criticizing the tripartite María Gelly y Obes, the Subsecretary of Culture governmental administration of the university, and Education, and established an Advisory which gave students equal representation with Council with ten members to draw up a new law alumni and professors in the directive boards, for the operation of the universities73. The Genta argued that the “tripartite government of following year, the council reached a conclusion the National Universities today is the on how to prevent the spread of communism enshrinement of the soviet university”69. within the universities and restore the pure objectives of the system of higher education. The Influenced by Catholic Nationalist theologians “National Universities: Organic Law” placed the such as Genta, Col. Villegas had also just system of higher education under the control of published his book Guerra revolucionario the government and eliminated the students’ comunista. In it, he warned his fellow officers methods of voicing their opinions. Students and that “war is developing within our own frontiers,” alumni no longer could vote in governmental and is as “threatening to us as any of the wars bodies of the universities as they did under the fought in the standard fashion.” However, Col. old tripartite governmental system. Pro-military Villega pointed out that “subversion is the rectors, deans and professors now held decisive procedure chosen [by the communists],” and power. To snuff out leftist influences, the new operates through penetration “of all the national law upheld Law 16.912, which had banned all power structures,” including “universities and student organizations. The new law also cultural centers”70. Heeding to Genta and Col. prohibited students and professors from engaging Villegas’ warnings, among others, Gen. Onganía in any political activities and gave the took measures to end the autonomy of the government legal power to intervene in the universities and to revise the system of higher universities whenever it considered such action to education, to eliminate communism among the be in the national interest74. intellectuals once and for all. The new university law emerged from the On 29 July 1966, six days after the government philosophy of the military’s earlier documents enacted the morality campaign, Gen. Onganía with much emphasis placed on the need to instill passed Law 16.912, which banned all student Catholic values in the masses and to prevent the

© Historia Actual Online 2008 73 General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution Cyrus Stephen Cousins spread of communism. During a speech to the destructors of our nationality […] which nation, Gen. Onganía argued that the “new conspires against international communism”78. university policy was to train professionals, technocrats and scientists who love their land and During their first six months in office, Onganía who desire to serve their community”75. The and his cabinet members considered that they had government ostensibly would preserve academic made progress in combating communism and freedom, yet the generals placed greater emphasis restoring the country’s spiritual and moral on the diffusion of national culture and patriotic community based on its traditional Catholic and spiritual values. However, communism values. However, by late 1966, inflation influenced more than university intellectuals, continued to rise and the government still had no necessitating specific legal measures to rid the clear plan to bring economic stabilization. The country of its harm. unpopular morality crusade, the violent university intervention, and the government’s lack of action During the first six months of the Argentine to fulfill its economic promises generated a Revolution, Gen. Onganía created the “National “profound feeling of discontent,” even System of Planning and Action for National “delegitimizing the government among the Security” which eventually resulted in the Buenos Aires citizenry”79. In response, Gen. creation of the National Council for Security, Onganía appointed new members to all of the known as CONASE (Consejo Nacional de cabinet positions, including internationally Seguridad)76. Gen. Onganía appointed Nationalist respected economist Adalbert Krieger Vasena as Col. Osiris J. Villegas as the head of CONASE. the new economic minister. The following year, Col. Villegas had clearly demonstrated in his Vasena eventually drafted and implemented speeches and writings that combating economic reforms to stabilize the economy and communism and restoring the country’s Catholic produce sustained growth80. values would receive top priority. After the intervention in the national universities and the Although the other members of the new cabinet four-month long morality crusade, in correlation supported Vasena’s semi-liberal economic reform with CONASE, the government continued policies, they continued their struggle to preserve combating communism and restoring the nation’s Catholic values and combat communism. All but morals by positing its cultural reforms within two of Gen. Onganía’s second cabinet were rhetoric to preserve national security. Specific members of the Ateneo de la República, a legislation provides salient examples of the Catholic Nationalist organization heavily government’s new discourse. influenced by Italian and Spanish fascism81. The members of the Ateneo possessed an Shortly after its creation, CONASE drafted Law authoritative right-wing Catholic mind-set and 16.940, “Communist Ideology: Postal embraced the Nationalist movement. As a result, Circulation,” decreed on 18 October 1966. The many within Gen. Onganía’s second cabinet legislation prohibited the sending of communist agreed that immorality had degraded Argentina, literature through the mail and enabled the especially the youth, and that belief in God had government to open and destroy any material that disappeared. Even though Vasena’s economic supposedly contained links to the circulation of program generated excitement and directed the leftist material. Ironically, besides outlawing the nation’s and international attention to its circulation of “propaganda doctrine […] of progress, Gen. Onganía’s new cabinet members communist objectives and purposes,” the law also found innovative ways to continue to combat specified that the post office could seize any communism and immorality. “books, prints, engravings, paintings, lithographs and photographs of immoral character”77. Even 4. THE ARGENTINE REVOLUTION’S within this specific anti-communist piece of ANTI-COMMUNIST AND CENSORSHIP legislation, the administration equated the danger LAWS of “immoral” material with the spread of leftist ideologies. When a government representative From the beginning of 1967, until dissenting announced the law to the nation, he argued that factions within the military overthrew Onganía the law would aid in the preservation of “our from power in 1970, the administration continued Western and Christian lifestyle […] of our to combat communism and preserve their traditions and family organization, [and to] religious values, albeit through less public safeguard the future generations from dangerous methods, by passing and enforcing anti- communist and censorship legislation. In August

74 © Historia Actual Online 2008 Cyrus Stephen Cousins General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution 1967, CONASE implemented the government’s at times as ‘heritage’, ‘tradition’, ‘Christian most effective piece of legislation to prevent the meaning of life’, and ‘origin’”85. However, further spread of leftist ideologies and to deal Avellaneda points out that the generals of the with threatening elements already within the sixth military regime borrowed and modeled their country. Law 17.401, “Communism: Rules of methods of censorship after those implemented Repression,” gave agents of the Secretary of State by Gen. Onganía86. Information (SIDE) the right to arrest anyone After the first six months in office, the military linked to spreading, harboring or engaging with regime of the Argentine Revolution continued its communist materials. This legislation enabled struggle against immorality and the spread of SIDE agents to classify anyone with “communist leftist ideologies through media censorship. ideological motivation, [who] performed, by any Following Col. Green’s censorship during the means, proselytizing, subversive, [or] morality campaign, the administration continued intimidating activities, or disturbers of public to pull various “immoral” magazines and books order,” as a “communist,” and imprison them from the market87. Law 17.741 and Law 18.019, from one to eight years82. The government now passed in May and December of 1968 possessed the legal right to prevent persons respectively, gave the government the legal right classified as communist from obtaining to censor the entertainment industry88. Law naturalization papers, state employment, licenses, 18.019 empowered the government to cut out scholarships, from manufacturing firearms for scenes or ban completely, movies, plays and commercial purposes, working in printing or television shows affecting “public morals, publishing firms, and from occupying trade union morality or national security”89. Any material that posts83. Often, Argentines only found out that included content that damaged marriage or family they had been classified as a communist threat life by justifying abortion, prostitution, crime, after having been denied the right to participate in sexual perversion, or adultery fell under the any of the above activities, or after they ended up government’s censorship. On December 27, the in jail. The two pieces of anti-communist Minister of the Interior, Gen. Guillermo Borda, legislation allowed the military government to criticized the entertainment industry, arguing the combat leftist influences with subtle but effective nation needed the laws because they “tend to the methods. Justifying arrests of subversives defense of the Argentine lifestyle [and] preserve through legal means allowed government Christian morality and family.” Furthermore, he officials to pick and choose whomever they reminded the citizens that the law expressed “the deemed to be a threat to national security. Within philosophy of the Argentine Revolution […] the first month of Law 17.401’s existence, police which has the support of the great mass of the arrested twenty four people. One of them, twenty population that is fed up with eroticism, violence six year old Alfredo Bass, a night school teacher and immorality”90. in Salta, lost his job and ended up in prison because someone had tipped off the police of the Government agents cut and pulled “immoral” existence of leftist books in his library84. The movies, television shows, operas and plays at government also passed specific censorship laws. will. They snipped five erotic minutes of Michelangelo Antonioni’s lavishly praised film Argentine historian Andrés Avellaneda argues “Blow-Up,” before only allowing those twenty that military dictatorships actively place one years or older to watch it. In addition, they censorship on culture because it is the expression completely banned Alberto Ginastera’s of morality, sexuality, family, religion, and internationally acclaimed opera “Bomerzo” from national security. Generals of the final the stage due to its “obsession with sex, violence dictatorship (1976-1983) made a distinction and hallucination”91. One source reported that between “true culture” and “false culture.” What rather than increase attendance of morally sound they called “true culture” reflected Argentina’s movies, the censorship law had decreased the traditional values based on the country’s Catholic overall average annual movie attendance from 7.2 heritage. “False culture” did not subordinate itself movies a year in 1960 to 2.0 movies in 197092. to morality and reflected the negative influence of Outraged at the government’s censorship, certain liberalism, individual utility, and leftist ideology. sectors of society voiced their discontent. In April Through censorship of cultural mediums, of 1969, the Argentine Association of Actors Avellaneda argues that the military, priests and filed a formal protest against the movie fascist right-wing politicians of the final censorship law that had slowly narrowed the dictatorship attempted to construct an Argentine scope of acceptable films93. lifestyle reflecting its Catholic values “qualified

© Historia Actual Online 2008 75 General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution Cyrus Stephen Cousins A month later, in May 1969, radical university as a whole because they believed the internal students protested and rioted in several of threat of communism had degraded the country’s Argentine major cities. The largest and most Catholic orientation and spiritual values. In their devastating occurred in Córdoba. During what minds, combating communism and immorality became known as the Cordobazo, disgruntled was just as important as stabilizing the economy. unionized workers joined with violent students The new government invested time and energy and brought the city to a stand still, forcing Gen. into their social and cultural campaigns months Onganía to declare a state of siege. The before Gen. Onganía finally took action towards emergency powers and the provisions of the anti- fulfilling his economic promises. After Vasena communist laws allowed the government to launched his plan for economic stabilization, suppress anyone it wished. One source speculated Gen. Onganía and his second cabinet persisted in that labeling union leaders and university combating communism and immorality through students as communists allowed the passing and enforcing anti-communist and administration to sentence them to long jail censorship legislation. Furthermore, the terms, regardless of their actual complicity in the military’s discourse and their crusades to combat riots94. Amidst the turmoil and chaos during the and prevent the spread of leftist ideologies final year of Onganía’s tenure in office, he through a morality campaign, intervention in the maintained his battle against immorality. nation’s universities, censorship, and anti- Provocative literature continued to disappear communist legislation departed from anti- from the newsstands, kiosks, and bookstores. In a communist rhetoric and actions in Western last ditch effort, on February 1970, Gen. Onganía countries during the Cold War, especially the established the National Council of Radio and United States. TV Agency (CONART) to monitor and censure that aspect of media by improving the moral tone During the Cold War, politicians and policy of their programs95. makers in the United States linked their struggle to combat communism and totalitarianism with The May riots forged an anomalous alliance their country’s moral duty to preserve the between the most radical university students and freedom of religion. They often referred to the union workers, inspiring the creation of urban evil they faced as “God-less communism,” a guerrilla groups that plagued the nation during system that would curtail citizens’ rights to the 1970s with their terrorism. In 1969, guerrilla freedom of choice, especially their choice of fighters carried out 114 armed operations, 434 in religious practice and expression. Yet, in the U.S. 1970 and 654 in 197196. The convergence of these religious motivations did not drive union workers and university students during the geopolitical policies. National Security, the fear May riots and the ensuing wave of chaos caused of World War III, and economic motivations - many to question Gen. Onganía’s ability to securing markets for trade and preserving sources maintain order and authority. Eventually in June for raw materials- better explain motivations for 1970, disgruntled military officers disposed U.S. policy and diplomacy during the Cold War. Onganía from office. His successor, Gen. In a sense, politicians employed religious rhetoric Roberto M. Levingston (June 1970-March 1971), to “sell” the war to the public. and the Argentine Revolution's final military president, General Alejandro A. Lanusse (March In Argentina, the anti-communism voiced by 1971-May 1973), feebly attempted to uphold the Argentina’s generals put religion at the forefront. anti-communist and censorship laws during their The military officers did not fear a political time in office. By then, the military’s worst ideology that organized a classless society based nightmares had become reality: the Argentine on the common ownership of the means of youth had cast off the constraints of Catholicism production. They targeted the nation’s loose and embraced leftist ideologies. Their political morals and loss of spirituality because they radicalization had turned to militancy. believed such expressions indicated that leftist ideologies had already penetrated society and had CONCLUSION contributed to the youth casting off Catholic values. Furthermore, the officers’ rhetoric and From 1966 to 1970, the discourse and actions of actions demonstrated that by constructing a moral authoritative and conservative Catholic-minded and spiritual culture based on the country’s military officers, civilian cabinet members, and traditional religious values and eliminating the the Buenos Aires police targeted the liberal atheistic cultural expressions, they “immorality” of the modern youth and the nation believed that they could shield Argentina’s youth

76 © Historia Actual Online 2008 Cyrus Stephen Cousins General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution from further infiltration of leftist and liberal ideologies. 7 Argentine Republic, Presidente, Mensaje de la junta revolucionaria al pueblo argentino. Buenos Aires, The subversive elements that so many saw Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia de la nación, 1966, 8. creeping into society not only brought new ideas 8 which questioned the framework of Argentine Argentine Republic, Presidente, Planeamiento y culture, but spoiled the youth from becoming desarrollo de la acción de gobierno: directiva. Buenos Aires, Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia Argentina’s future leading class. The nation could de la nación, 1966, 16. not be ruled by a generation of mediocre and 9 Argentine Republic, Secretaria de Estado de liberal atheists. The preservation of a future Gobierno, Acta de la Revolución Argentina, op. cit., generation of young people who possessed values 26. based on Catholic Nationalist theology, which 10 Central Intelligence Agency, “Argentina: A rejected leftist ideologies and the materialism of Promising Effort at Economic Reforms”, August Western Culture, depended on the success of 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson Archives, National Security File, Country File, Argentina, Box 6, 47-48. Gen. Onganía’s social and cultural reforms 11 during the Argentine Revolution. Feldman, Simón, La generación del sesenta. Buenos Aires, Editorial Legasa, I.N.C., 1990, 7. 12 Romero, Luis Alberto, A History of Argentina in NOTES the Twentieth Century. Translated by James P.

1 Brennan. University Park, Pennsylvania, The O’Donnell, Guillermo, Bureaucratic Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002, 161. Authoritarianism: Argentina, 1966-1973, in 13 “Underwear is also outerwear”, Buenos Aires Comparative Perspective. Berkeley, University of Herald, 6 July 1966. The article pushed females to California Press, 1988, 22, 31. See also Rouquié, challenge traditional dress patterns through a simple Alain, The Military and the State in Latin America. scenario: “You are standing there in your slip, or Translated by Paul E. Sigmund. Berkeley, Los maybe even your bra and panties, when suddenly you Angeles and London, University of California Press, notice a crew of window washers industriously 1987; Loveman, Brian and Davies, Jr., Thomas M., wiping away at the view-obstructing haze on the The Politics of Antipolitics: The Military in Latin glass. What do you do? Shriek hysterically and run America. 2nd ed. Lincoln, University of Nebraska for a robe? Never. The Solution: Go about your Press, 1989, di Tella, Guido and Dornbusch, Rudiger business as though you were fully dressed.” (eds.), The Political Economy of Argentina, 1946-83. 14 “Brazilian Fashion Show Reveals More Short Oxford, MacMillan Press, 1989, Alejandro, C.F. Skirts and Exposing Blouses”, Buenos Aires Herald, Díaz, Essays on the Economic History of the 18 July 1966. Argentine Republic. New Haven, Yale University 15 Manzano, Valeria, “Sexualizing Youth: Morality Press, 1970, Mallon, Richard D., Economic Campaigns and Representations of Youth in Early Policymaking in a Conflict Society: The Argentine 1960s Buenos Aires”. op. cit., 434. Case. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1975, 16 Romero, Luis Alberto, A History of Argentina in and Thompson, John, “Argentine Economic Policy the Twentieth Century. op. cit., 160. under the Onganía Regime”. Inter-American 17 Manzano, Valeria, “Sexualizing Youth”. op. cit., Economic Affairs, vol. 24 (Summer 1970), 51-71. 2 452-453. Sigmund, Paul E., “Review: Approaches to the 18 Plotkin, Mariano Ben, Freud in the Pampas: The Study of the Military in Latin America”. Emergence and Development of a Psychoanalytic Comparative Politics, XXVI-1 (1993), 111-122. 3 Culture in Argentina. Stanford University Press, Manzano, Valeria, “Sexualizing Youth: Morality Stanford, 2001, 70-71. Campaigns and Representations of Youth in Early 19 Lewis, Paul H., Guerrillas and Generals: The 1960s Buenos Aires”. Journal of the History of “Dirty War” in Argentina. Westport, Connecticut Sexuality, XIV-4 (October 2005), 435. 4 and London, Praeger, 2002, 29. Avellaneda, Andrés, “The Process of Censorship 20 Plotkin, Mariano Ben, Freud in the Pampas…, op. and Censorship of the Proceso: Argentina 1976- cit., 71. 1983”, in Foster, David William (ed.), The 21 Argentine Republic, Secretaria de Estado de Redemocratization of Argentine Culture: 1983 and Gobierno, Acta de la Revolución Argentina. op. cit., Beyond. Tempe, Arizona State University Press, 7, 25. 1989, 26, 33. 22 5 Ibid., 7. Osiel, Mark, Mass Atrocity, Ordinary Evil, and 23 Argentine Republic, Presidente, Planeamiento y Hannah Arendt: Criminal Consciousness in desarrollo de la acción de gobierno: directiva. op. Argentina’s Dirty War. New Haven, Yale University cit., 16. Press, 2001, 110-112. 24 6 Argentine Republic, Secretaria de Estado de Argentine Republic, Secretaria de Estado de Gobierno, Acta de la Revolución Argentina. op. cit., Gobierno, Acta de la Revolución Argentina. Buenos 25. Aires, Secretaria de estado de Gobierno, 1966, 7.

25 Argentine Republic, Presidente, Planeamiento y 49 “Asumió su cargo el inspector general de la desarrollo de la acción de gobierno: directiva…, op. municipalidad”, La Prensa, 23 July 1966. cit., 37. 50 Manzano, Valeria, “Sexualizing Youth”. op. cit., 26 Osiel, Mark, Mass Atrocity, Ordinary Evil, and 445. Hannah Arendt.., op. cit., 105. 51 “La Revolución en Cuba”, La Nación, 2 January 27 Ibid., 106-107. 1961, cit. in Manzano, Valeria, “Sexualizing Youth”. 28 Rock, David, Authoritarian Argentina: The op. cit., 445. Nationalist Movement, Its History and Its Impact. 52 Ibid. Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford, University of 53 “Riot Police Guard Closed Buenos Aires California Press, 1993, 28, 30, xv. University”, New York Times, 3 August 1966. 29 Allende, Walter Beveraggi, El dogma nacionalista. 54 “Buenos Aires Celebrates Fall of Morality Buenos Aires, Manuel Belgrano, 1969, 5-6. Advocate”, New York Times, 26 November 1966. 30 Genta, Jordán Bruno, Libertad. Speech of 55 Moyano, María José, Argentina’s Lost Patrol: September 5, 1951, cit. in Rock, David, Armed Struggle: 1969-1979. New Haven and Authoritarian Argentina. op. cit., 131. London, Yale University Press, 1995, 18. 31 Genta, Jordán Bruno, Tres Estudios. Buenos Aires, 56 “Detúvose a integrantes de un trio musical”, La 1970, cit. in Osiel, Mark, Mass Atrocity, Ordinary Prensa, 1 August 1966. Evil, and Hannah Arendt…, op. cit., 104. 57 It is near impossible to know the exact number of 32 Waisman, Carlos H., “The Ideology of Right-wing people arrested during the morality campaign. Either Nationalism in Argentina: Capitalism, Socialism, and the Federal Police did not give numbers to the press the Jews”, Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress during their crusade or the press did not publish of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 4-12, 1985. them, being afraid of possible censorship. Manzano Jerusalem, World Union of Jewish Studies, 1986, has estimated that the police arrested at least 335 337-344: 338. people for different violations during the first three 33 Cheresky, Isidoro, “Argentina: Régimen político weeks of the campaign. See Manzano, Valeria, de soberanía compartida”. Punto de vista, 19 (n.d.), “Sexualizing Youth”..., op. cit., 456. cit. in Rock, David, Authoritarian Argentina…, op. 58 “Funcionarios municipales contra el liberalismo cit., xiv. ateo y la pornografia”, La Nación, 28 July 1966, cit. 34 Ibid., xx. in Manzano, Valeria, “Sexualizing Youth”…, op. 35 Genta, Jordán Bruno, Guerra cit., 455. contrarevolucionario. 2nd ed. Buenos Aires, 59 Ibid. Editorial Nuevo Orden, 1965, 30-31, 249-251. 60 Ibid., 458. 36 Villegas, Osiris J., “La estrategia integral de la 61 Alisky, Marvin and Hoopes, Paul R., “Argentina’s lucha subversiva”. Revista Militar (January-April Provincial Dailies Reflect Neutralism of Mass 1987), 11-19, cit. in Rock, David, Authoritarian Media”. Journalism Quarterly, 45 (Spring 1968), 95- Argentina.., op. cit., xix. 96. 37 Argentine Republic, Presidente, Planeamiento y 62 “El zafarrancho aquel de la Comuna”, Primera desarrollo de la acción de gobierno: directiva…, op. Plana, 29 November 1966. cit., 9. 63 Argentine Republic, Ministerio de Cultura y 38 Lewis, Paul H., Guerrillas and Generals…, op. Educación, Departamento de Estadística Educativa, cit., 26. Argentina: La educación en cifras 1958-1967. 39 Romero, Luis Alberto, A History of Argentina in Buenos Aires, Departamento de Estadística Educativa, the Twentieth Century…, op. cit., 168. 1967, 88, and Argentine Republic, Ministerio de 40 Lewis, Paul H., Guerrillas and Generals…, op. Cultura y Educación, Departamento de Estadística cit., 22-25. Educativa, Argentina: La educación en cifras, 1963- 41 Guevara, Ernesto Che, La guerra de guerrillas. 1972. Buenos Aires, Departamento de Estadística Lima, Fondo de Cultura Popular, 1973, 15. Educativa, 1972, 35. 42 “El Presidente expusó en su discurso planes de 64 Ollier, María Matilde, Orden, poder, y violencia gobierno”. La Prensa, 31 December 1966. (1968-1973). Vol. 2. Buenos Aires, Centro Editor de 43 Argentine Republic, Secretaria de Estado de América Latina, 1989, 257-258. Gobierno, Acta de la Revolución Argentina…, op. 65 Sebreli, Juan José, Buenos Aires: vida cotidiana y cit., 7. alienación. Buenos Aires, Siglo Veinte, 1965, 77. 44 Argentine Republic, Presidente, Planeamiento y 66 For a list of the groups as well as membership by desarrollo de la acción de gobierno: directiva…, op. departments, see Herrick, Paul B., The Political cit., 20. Consequences of the Argentine Revolution of 1966. 45 Romero, Luis Alberto, A History of Argentina in Doctoral Dissertation, Tulane University, April 1976, the Twentieth Century…, op. cit., 169. 284-285. 46 “Asumió su cargo el inspector general de la 67 “El Presidente expuso en su discurso planes de municipalidad”, La Prensa, 23 July 1966. gobierno”, La Prensa, 31 December 1966. 47 Ibid. 68 Genta, Jordán Bruno, Libertad, 90, cit. in Rock, 48 “Morals clean-up promised”, Buenos Aires Herald, David, Authoritarian Argentina..., op. cit., 136. 23 July 1966.

69 Genta, Jordán Bruno, Guerra 83 Argentine Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, Contrarevolucionario..., op. cit., 47, 210-212. “Comunismo: Regimen de repression”. Anuario de 70 Villegas, Osiris J., Guerra revolucionaria legislación: nacional-provincial 1967-B. op. cit., Ley comunista. Buenos Aires, Pleamar, 1962, 11-12, 87, 17.401, 1521-1523. 177. 84 “Argentina Makes Arrests Under Anti-Red Law”, 71 Argentine Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, The New York Times, 3 October 1967. “Universidades”. Anuario de legislación: nacional- 85 Avellaneda, Andrés, “The Process of Censorship provincial 1966. Buenos Aires, Talleres Gráficos, and Censorship of the Proceso”…, op. cit., 26, 33. Ley 16.912, 244-5. 86 Ibid. 72 Bra, Gerardo, “La noche de los bastones largos: el 87 “Prohíbese la venta y circulación de varias garrote y la inteligencia”. Todo es historia, vol. 18, revistas”, La Prensa, 20 March 1967. no. 223 (November 1985), 8-26: 10-12, and Moyano, 88 Argentine Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, Maria José, Argentina’s Lost Patrol…, op. cit., 19-21. “Cinematografia: Actividades cinematograficas, 73 “Asumió su cargo el subsecretario del justicia”, La regimen, fomento”. Anuario de legislación: Prensa, 28 August 1966. nacional-provincial 1968-A. Buenos Aires, Talleres 74 Argentine Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, Gráficos, Ley 17.741, 514-519, and Argentine “Universidades Nacionales: Ley Organica”. Anuario Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, de legislación: nacional-provincial 1967-B. Buenos “Cinematografia: Regimen”. Anuario de legislación: Aires, Talleres Gráficos, Ley 17.245, 1484-1492. nacional-provincial 1969-A. Buenos Aires, Talleres 75 “Discurso que pronunció el primer magistrado”, La Gráficos, Ley 18.019, 417-421. Prensa, 21 September 1968. 89 Argentine Republic. Jurisprudencia Argentina, 76 Argentine Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, “Cinematografia: Regimen”. Anuario de legislación: “Defensa nacional”. Anuario de legislación: nacional-provincial 1969-A. op. cit., Ley 18.019, nacional-provincial 1967-A. Buenos Aires, Talleres 418. Gráficos, Ley 16.970, 659. 90 “Fue dictada una ley sobre contralor de 77 Argentine Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, exhibiciones de películas de cine y TV”, La Prensa, “Ideologia Comunista: Circulación Postal”. Anuario 27 December 1968. de legislación: nacional-provincial 1967-A. op. cit., 91 “Pinter Banned? Antonioni Banned? But Why?”, Ley 16.984, 502. New York Times, 10 September 1967. 78 “Prohivióse la diffusion por correo de material 92 U.N. Statistical Yearbook, 1966, Table 208, 760, comunista”, La Prensa, 20 October 1966, and cit. in Herrick, Paul B., The Political Consequences Argentine Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, of the Argentine Revolution of 1966. op. cit., 198. “Ideologia Comunista: Circulación Postal”. Anuario 93 “En asamblea extraordinaria la Asociación de legislación: nacional-provincial 1967-A. op. cit., Argentina de Actores trató la ley de censura Ley 16.984, 502. cinematográfica recientemente implantada”, La 79 Manzano, Valeria, “Sexualizing Youth”…, op. cit., Prensa, 16 April 1969. 458. 94 “Argentina Moves to Curb Unionists”, New York 80 Vasena’s economic plan received much Times, June 5, 1969. international praise. In 1968, the U.S. Central 95 “Orientará a la radio y la TV en todo el país el Intelligence Agency lauded the stabilization plan in Ministerio del Interior”, La Prensa, 14 February their “CIA Report: Argentina-A Promising Effort at 1970. Economic Reforms,” see Lyndon Baines Johnson 96 Six major guerrilla groups went into action in 1969 Library and Archives, Austin, Texas, National and the following year: the Peronist Armed Forces Security File, Country File, Argentina, Box 6, and in (FAP), Shirtless Commandos, Montoneros, 1969 the Financial Times of London named Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), Liberation Argentina (and Japan) as the year’s two outstanding Armed Forces (FAL) and the People’s Revolutionary economic and financial performances. For more on Army (ERP). See Moyano, Maria José, Argentina’s Vasena’s reform policies, see di Tella, Guido and Lost Patrol…, op. cit., 27. Braun, Carlos Rodríguez (eds.), Argentina, 1946-83: The Economic Ministers Speak. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1990, 101-102. 81 For a list of the cabinet members who participated in the Ateneo de la República, and their various roles in the organization, see Siegelbaum, Clair Huga, The first year of the Argentine Revolution: A New Experiment in Corporatism? Doctoral Thesis, Harvard University, 1968, 113-114. 82 Argentine Republic, Jurisprudencia Argentina, “Comunismo: Regimen de repression”. Anuario de legislación: nacional-provincial 1967-B. op. cit., Ley 17.401, 1522.