Diplomacy in the Americas in the 1930s

Conceptual Understanding: Key Questions

• Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt implement the Good Neighbor Policy after coming to power in 1933, and what were its effects for the Americas up to 1941?
• How and why did Canada’s role, both in the Americas and as part of the Commonwealth, change in the 1930s?
• To what extent were the countries in the Americas (other than Canada) truly neutral up to 1941?

Key Concepts

• Causation
• Consequences

4.1 Diplomacy in the Americas in the 1930s

• Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, its application and effects.
• US diplomacy in the Americas was centered around the Monroe Doctrine of 1823.
  • Initially developed to prevent European powers from reasserting themselves in the region after countries achieved independence.
  • Extended to justify US intervention, especially in Central America and the Caribbean during the early 20th century.
• Herbert Hoover's approach (1929):
  • Aimed to improve relationships between the USA and Latin America.
  • Undertook a goodwill tour of Latin American countries after the 1928 election.
  • The Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression damaged hemispheric relations due to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's approach:
  • Shared Hoover’s opinion on improving relations with Latin America.
  • Articulated his desire for the USA to become a ‘good neighbor’ in his inaugural address on March 4, 1933.
  • This meant the USA would not intervene unilaterally in the affairs of other states in the Americas.
  • Actions of US Secretary of State Cordell Hull supported Roosevelt's intentions.
  • In December 1933, at the Seventh International Conference of American States, the USA declared the Good Neighbor Policy operational.
• Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act:
  • US law enacted in June 1930 that raised import duties on over 20,000 goods to protect US agriculture and industry from the effects of the Great Depression.

Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States

• Signed by 19 countries in the Americas, asserting their sovereignty.
• Went into effect in 1934, advocating a position of non-interference.
• Hull stated ‘no government need fear any intervention on the part of the US’.
• The USA demonstrated its commitment by:
  • Withdrawing US marines from Haiti and Nicaragua.
  • Abrogating the Platt Amendment, giving Cuba a free hand in its own domestic affairs.
• Even when a military junta under Ramón Grau San Martín came to power in Cuba, the USA pursued a policy of non-recognition, rather than military intervention.
• 1936 Buenos Aires Conference:
  • Further strengthened the Good Neighbor Policy by explicitly stating that force would not be used for the protection of property or citizens abroad.
  • US business interests were concerned as their citizens and investments had to adhere to the laws of the host countries.
  • Argentina and Mexico openly challenged US dominance, insisting that the Americas not be driven by US interests or agendas.
  • The USA agreed it could not act unilaterally in affairs in the Americas or dictate inter-American policy.
• Controversy in the USA:
  • Business interests felt threatened due to $5 billion in investments in Latin America ($1.5 billion in portfolio, $3.5 billion in direct investment), including $1.5 billion in Cuba.
  • The government responded that US intervention to defend these ‘[w]ould not constitute intervention in internal affairs of another state. It would be simply a matter of protection’.
  • The USA chose diplomatic pressure (including diplomatic non-recognition) rather than force.
• Other countries' agendas:
  • Welcomed US non-intervention.
  • Desired easy access to US markets.
  • Hoped the Montevideo Convention would improve trade.
• US response:
  • Established the Export-Import Bank to facilitate commercial loans to companies that imported goods from the USA.
  • Passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, allowing the government to negotiate bilateral agreements to reduce tariffs and negate the effects of Smoot-Hawley.
  • Recognized that the USA largely imported raw materials and non-competitive foods, making tariffs mutually disadvantageous.
  • Brazil benefited significantly, with 90% of its exports placed on the duty-free list in 1935, becoming the fifth-largest supplier to the USA.
• Abrogate: to repeal or do away with, usually in reference to laws.

Economic Agreements

• By 1938, the USA was the main trading partner for all independent countries in the region except Argentina.
• Argentina had agreements with the UK and saw its future aligned more with Europe.
• Germany wanted to improve trade relations with the region, and trade with Brazil doubled between 1933 and 1938, but they paid in ‘compensation marks’ which could only be used to purchase German goods.
• Unintended consequence: binding these countries’ economies to the USA and increasing reliance on the US market, leading to complications after the Second World War.

Conflict over Oil

• Bolivia and Mexico, oil-rich countries with concessions owned by foreign nationals, challenged foreign ownership.
• Bolivia (March 1937):
  • Confiscated the properties of Standard Oil Company for illegally selling oil to Argentina.
  • Denied compensation, arguing it was a cancellation of an agreement, not an expropriation.
  • Denied loans from the Export-Import Bank, and negotiations lasted over three years.
  • In 1940, with war in Europe and Asia, the USA agreed to a $1.5$ million payment for the sale of the company to Bolivia.
• Mexico (March 1938):
  • Announced the expropriation of US, Dutch, and British oil companies after labor disputes.
  • US Secretary of State Cordell Hull accused Mexico of violating international law and demanded immediate compensation.
  • Roosevelt made it clear that US intervention would not occur.
  • Mexico proceeded with negotiations.
  • Refused loans from the Export-Import Bank, and the USA terminated an agreement to purchase 5 million ounces of silver per month, later recanting and purchasing the silver on a day-to-day basis.
  • US business interests boycotted Mexican oil, leading to an agreement with the Axis powers.
  • Final agreement: $24$ million payment from Mexico plus 3% interest, for a total of $29$ million.
• The willingness of the USA to negotiate with Bolivia and Mexico indicated a shift in the Good Neighbor Policy due to the onset of war in Asia and Europe.
• Between 1939 and 1941, the USA returned to the idea of hemispheric solidarity, more in terms of military assistance than economic.
• Expropriation: An action in which the state takes possession of private property.

Cultural Component of the Good Neighbor Policy

• Throughout the 1930s, government agencies promoted a positive portrayal of the USA throughout the Americas.
• Passenger lines were developed to South America to establish cultural understanding.
• Motion pictures, radio, and the press in the USA were encouraged to showcase Latin American culture.
• The 1939 World’s Fair in New York highlighted unity, and many countries in the Pan-American Union sent delegations.
• Intensified when war broke out in Europe, seeking to negate the growth of pro-Axis sentiment in Latin America.

Results of the Good Neighbor Policy

• Historians and politicians view the results as mixed.
• Peter Smith: ‘golden era of US relations with Latin America’.
• Others: a way for the USA to maintain regional dominance through diplomatic and economic pressure.
• Positives: Economic cooperation promoted stability and put countries on the road to stable democracies.
• Negatives: Ignores the number of dictatorships that developed during the Good Neighbor era.
• By August 1939, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua fell to dictators, and authoritarian regimes in Argentina and Brazil persevered.
• Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre called the USA ‘the good neighbor of tyrants’.

Canada’s Inter-Americas Diplomacy

• Focus on the Good Neighbor Policy often ignores Canada's relations with other states in the hemisphere.
• Historically, Canada’s foreign relations were subordinate to the UK, with only five diplomatic legations prior to the 1930s.
• Canada’s position within the empire began to change during WWI, and autonomy evolved in the inter-war period.
• Defining moment: April 1917 at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, representing the birth of Canadian national unity and separation from the empire.
• Result of WWI performance:
  • Canada was awarded its own seat in the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations.
• 1920s: Canada began to take responsibility for its own foreign and military affairs.
• 1931: Statute of Westminster formally recognized this increase in autonomy.
  • Canada, along with Australia, New Zealand, the Irish Free State, South Africa, and Newfoundland, were ‘fully independent dominions equal in status to but closely associated with the mother country as part of the British Commonwealth of Nations’.
  • Laws passed by the British parliament did not apply to Canada, and it could pursue its own independent foreign policy.
• Economic shift: the USA began to replace the UK as Canada’s primary trading partner because it was less expensive to trade with a contiguous country.
• Canadians traditionally feared US encroachment, but this sentiment waned in the 1920s.
• 1927: Canada sent its first ambassador to the USA, William Phillips.
• Great Depression and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff:
  • Negated positive relations.
  • Canada retaliated with its own tariffs, and US–Canadian trade fell by 75%.
• Prime Minister William Lyons Mackenzie King signed the Reciprocal Trade Agreement with the USA in 1935 to regain US trade and ameliorate the harsh effect of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in USA–Canada trade.
• Canada also had an interest in hemispheric relations beyond the USA.
  • 19th century: economic relations with other imperial possessions in the Caribbean, and Mexico and Brazil.
  • Canada had little latitude to act due to British imperial policies.
• Pan-American Union:
  • The USA opposed Canadian membership, fearing it would represent British colonial interests, in violation of the Monroe Doctrine.
  • The USA argued that Canada was neither independent nor a republic.
• Legation: A diplomatic representation lower than an embassy.

Trade Agreements in the 1930s

• Canada made a series of trade agreements with South American countries and became Argentina’s third-largest trading partner, despite competing for grain markets.
• There were Canadian investments in insurance and infrastructure development, but this was not significant (roughly 2–3% of Canadian world trade was with Latin America).
• Canada remained loyal and deferential to British interests in the region.
• Late 1930s: proposals were advanced to create an inter-American economic cartel, but these were quashed due to the implications for East Asia.
• Solidarity was at its high point when events in Asia and Europe intervened, changing hemispheric relations.

Hemispheric Reactions to Events in Europe and Asia

• Great Depression: most states focused on internal affairs and foreign policies that might help alleviate suffering.
• European countries initially diminished their trade with the region as they imposed taxes to benefit their national businesses.
• Great Depression intensified extremism, and the establishment of authoritarian regimes was accompanied by increased militarism and aggression.
• The USA and Canada were drawn into the crises of the 1930s.
• As members of the League of Nations, 15 countries in the Americas voted on these issues.
• The USA, despite non-membership, had a profound effect on League decision-making.

Manchurian Crisis (1931)

• September 1931: The Japanese military used a damaged section of the Southern Manchurian Railway track as a pretext to invade Manchuria and occupy the resource-rich area.
• The USA refused to recognize Manchuria as a Japanese territory.
• US policy remained focused on diplomatic disapproval and non-recognition.
• League of Nations established the Lytton Commission to investigate the causes and determine whether Japan was guilty of aggression.
• The USA appointed General Frank McCoy to serve on the commission.
• The Lytton Commission found Japan was guilty of aggression.
• President Herbert Hoover believed that economic sanctions would lead to war, and counselled moral condemnation and international pressure rather than overt actions.
• The League upheld the commission’s condemnation but would not impose economic sanctions against Japan (the USA and Canada were both important in this decision).
• Most League countries were unwilling to impose economic sanctions on Japan, largely due to the USA’s non-membership.
• The UK had numerous territories in East Asia and was afraid that economic sanctions might lead to retaliation on the part of the Japanese.
• Canada was torn between the USA and the UK.
• The British position of conciliation contrasted with the US position of moral condemnation and non-recognition.
• The British soon felt that conciliation was impossible and supported the findings of the Lytton Commission; with other members of the League, they condemned Japanese aggression in accordance with the USA’s findings.
• Japan withdrew from the League in March 1933, marking a shift in US foreign policy.

Hitler's Rise to Power

• Mixed response in the Americas.
• Some saw him as Germany’s saviour and sought to imitate his brand of nationalism through their own populist movements.
• Others feared his racial policies and authoritarian control (President Roosevelt).
• Others saw policies they could borrow and use to their advantage (Getúlio Vargas).
• Growing discomfort with his methods even as there was admiration at Germany’s apparent recovery.
• The US Congress passed the first of a series of Neutrality Acts (1935) specifying that the USA would not sell arms or war materials with any country involved in war.
• Roosevelt first invoked the act with the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

Italian Invasion of Ethiopia

• The USA prevented arms and ammunitions sales to both countries.
• Canada was divided on the issue:
  • Ottowa instructed its representative to abstain in a decision of condemnation.
  • The delegation volunteered to work on a committee to determine sanctions, expressly against Ottowa’s instructions.
  • Canada was caught between the US and British positions.
  • Walter Riddell, Canada’s representative to the League, urged sanctions, and although King agreed he felt that condemnation had to be accompanied by some action demonstrating the strength of the opinion – but once again Canada was caught between the US and British positions.
  • Riddell’s perspective was more aligned with the British while the US view counselled restraint.

Spanish Civil War

• Most official government policies were clear: this was an internal matter to be determined by the Spaniards themselves, and the USA invoked the Neutrality Act.
• US businesses worked overtly with the nationalists, most notably the Texas Oil Company (Texaco).
• Mexico supported the Republicans against Franco’s forces.
• Most Latin American countries and the US territory of Puerto Rico were sympathetic with the nationalists but maintained an officially neutral position.

Conflict in Asia

• Roosevelt did not implement the Neutrality Act because he was sympathetic to the nationalist (Guomindang) government of China and did not want to limit its ability to purchase US arms.
• There was no formal declaration of war in the Japanese campaigns in China.
• US neutrality was increasingly questioned by US isolationists.
• Roosevelt was seeking to pass legislation that would benefit the countries he supported.
• One of the reasons that Ottowa was ambivalent in determining whether its primary loyalty was to the USA or the UK was that the USA took a much stronger stance against German aggression than the UK.
• When Roosevelt was visiting Kingston, Ontario in 1938 he gave a speech in which he stated that the USA would be willing to defend Canada to defend itself, and that it did not see Canada as a threat to US security in any way.
• Roosevelt was increasingly on the side of intervention, but appeasement became the prevailing policy.

Munich Conference (September 1938)

• Hailed as a success for appeasement, and war was avoided over Czechoslovakia.
• British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appeared to be a hero.
• March 1939: Germany occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia.
• Roosevelt sent a telegram to Hitler in April 1939 demanding that he not invade a series of countries.
• Roosevelt appealed to the US Congress once again, unsuccessfully.
• September 1, 1939: Germany invaded Poland.

Start of WWII

• France and the UK declared war on Germany and began to mobilize.
• Hemispheric responses were divided, but most of the region was anti-Axis even if neutrality was maintained.
• Canada was the exception and shortly entered the war against Germany.

Canada at War (1939–41)

• 1939: there was still a sense of loyalty to the British, and Canada’s participation seemed a foregone conclusion, but with the Westminster Statute, the decision was Canada’s to make.
• The decision to enter the war occurred only after debate and vote in the Canadian parliament, and on September 10, 1939, Canada declared war on Germany.
• The Canadian army was poorly equipped and small.
• The Munich crisis precipitated an increase in spending.
• In the year before the declaration of war, military spending nearly doubled, and then nearly doubled again in the following year: by 1940 the defence budget was $64.3$ million.
• Half of that went to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).
• December 1939: the British Commonwealth Air Training Force was established because the British Isles were vulnerable to enemy attack.
• It called for the training of 13,000 Canadian airmen per year.
• All Commonwealth airmen received elementary training in their home countries before transferring to Canada for advanced training.
• Throughout the course of the war Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Southern Rhodesians, and Americans received training in Canada.
• These forces were important in the Battle of Britain when Germany launched its aerial offensive on the UK in July 1940.
• Canada was among the 13 countries that also sent pilots that flew missions to protect the island.
• The 7th British Army Corps consisted of Canadian, New Zealand, and British troops.
• It planned a counter-offensive against the Luftwaffe and helped in the victory over the Germans.
• October 1940: the Germans abandoned their aerial battle and instead began the Blitz – night raids on civilian areas designed to undermine British morale.
• Canada’s Navy also rose to prominence during the war.
• When German offensives in spring 1940 caused the defeat of most of western Europe, the Battle of the Atlantic became critical.
• British were reliant on supplies from overseas, and Canada’s small Navy was made responsible for patrolling the north Atlantic for German ships and submarines.
• It was instrumental in protecting convoys as they crossed the ocean.
• Canadian naval construction was expanded to meet the need of the battle.

Hemispheric Neutrality (1939–41)

• The USA hoped to remain aloof from the aggressive actions unfolding throughout the war, but Roosevelt recognized the need for self-defence.
• Roosevelt requested from Congress $1$ billion for defence and the development of a two-ocean navy.
• Roosevelt approached Congress with the intention of altering the Neutrality Act that lapsed in May 1939.
• After much discussion the policy of ‘cash and carry’ was implemented.
• It allowed the sale of arms to belligerent countries as long as the recipients arranged the transportation themselves and paid cash for the armaments.
• This prevented Germany, which was cash poor, from purchasing arms from US businesses while assisting the French and British in obtaining weapons.
• US ships and citizens were prohibited from entering war zones.
• After rolling rapidly through Eastern Europe, in the winter of 1939–40 activity was so limited that US journalists often referred to the war as the ‘phoney war’.
• This changed in April 1940 when the Germans launched their offensives, taking Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and attacking France.
• As a result of the Norwegian defeat, the British government fell and Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill and a war cabinet.
• June 1940: French forces surrendered; France was divided – the northern and coastal region was occupied territory while the south and east became the collaborationist government with its capital in Vichy.
• Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden were officially neutral and had economic agreements with the Axis to protect their neutrality.
• The UK was now alone against Germany in Europe, reliant on its colonies and the Commonwealth countries for assistance.
• The British maintained trade relations with the Americas, and ships were constantly crossing the Atlantic.
• German submarines patrolled the Atlantic, hoping to prevent this from continuing, torpedoing any ship they thought was engaged in trade with its enemy.
• A number of US, Mexican, and Brazilian vessels were damaged or sunk, but neutrality remained the prevailing policy.
• Latin America was ambivalent – Germany had helped a number of countries out of the Great Depression through trade, and still others (such as Peru) had engaged German officers to help train their own troops.
• There was discomfort with the brutality of the regime, but the Nazis were also admired.
• At this time, the Latin American countries found it was most favourable to maintain a neutral position regarding the war in Europe.
• 1940: Roosevelt broke with tradition by running for an unprecedented third term in office.
• He soundly defeated his opponent, Wendell Wilkie, even though the Revenue Act of 1940 raised the debt ceiling to $4$ billion and the Select Service Act began the first peacetime draft (conscription) in US history.
• Shorty after the election, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt and informed him that the British could no longer afford to pay for war materials and requested assistance.

Lend-Lease Aid

• Roosevelt developed what came to be known as Lend Lease Aid, a programme by which the USA would lend or lease equipment to the British in their fight against the Germans.
• $7$ billion was allocated to begin the programme, with the US Authorized to sell, lease, loan, or transfer war materials to any country that the president determined was critical to US interests.
• Hyde Park Declaration, signed by Mackenzie King and Roosevelt, allowed US war materials that were made in Canada to be included in Lend Lease Aid.
• Although Canada only received $20.3$ million from this agreement, it created a triangular agreement with Canada emerging as a junior partner in the Grand Alliance that had significant political ramifications after the war.
• Lend-Lease Aid to the Allies eventually totalled $50$ billion.
• Those who benefited the most were the UK, the Soviet Union, China and France, Latin America also benefited.

Hemispheric Solidarity

• The belligerence in Asia and Europe solidified the concept of hemispheric solidarity.
• The USA saw Latin America and the Caribbean as critical to its defence.
• A decision of the Pan-American Union stated that, in adherence to the Monroe Doctrine, Dutch and French colonial possessions in the region would not be recognized as Axis possessions.
• Argentina dissented, afraid that the US would use this as an excuse to annex these territories.
• The outbreak of war was the critical reason that the USA became amenable to solving the petroleum disputes with Bolivia and Mexico in 1940.
• $1940$: Roosevelt created the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) to further promote hemispheric solidarity and prevent or end Axis espionage in the region by emphasizing inter-American relations.
• The CIAA emphasized an inter-American heritage of independence and democracy.
• The CIAA sought to find common ground and create the idea of a common Americas way of life.
• Citizens in the USA were presented with sympathetic, identifiable neighbours to the south, and the USA was presented as open and egalitarian.
• The CIAA targeted Brazil, with large Japanese and German populations, and Argentina and Chile – also with large German populations but also pro-fascist proclivities.
• Most Americans remained isolationist regarding the war in Europe, a majority believed that Latin America must be defended in the event of an Atlantic attack.
• In public opinion polls in 1940, 72% of Americans thought that Cuba should be defended and 53% were willing to send troops to defend ‘Brazil, Chile or any South American country’, however, a mere 17% were willing to do so to defend the UK.

Economic Solidarity

• War in Europe also meant an end to Latin American trade with Europe.
• Argentina and Brazil also established Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) and could absorb some of these losses but the majority of countries had to turn to the USA for both import and export trade.
• Manufactured goods now came almost exclusively from the USA although Canada also benefited somewhat.
• The USA also needed raw materials from Latin America due to the war.
• Copper from Chile, cotton from Peru, oil from Mexico, Bolivia and Venezuela, and platinum from Colombia were all necessary for the war effort, and the USA often made agreements to buy at above-market values, but this was temporary.
• The net result for most of Latin America was inflation, but there was also growth, and economies stayed afloat.
• Military assistance was also forthcoming, especially for those countries seen as important to regional defence.
• Brazil benefited: US air bases were built in Natal to provide a southern defence force; and it received one of the largest portions of lend lease arms assistance.
• Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador received funds to modernize and enlarge their militaries.
• The anti-Axis position of the USA was further established in the summer of 1941 by the extension of Lend Lease assistance to the Soviet Union and the Atlantic Charter.
• The sixth objective explicitly sought ‘the final destruction of … Nazi tyranny’.
• The USA maintained neutrality and did not enter the war.

Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath

• Japanese aggression continued largely unchecked in East Asia.
• 1940: Japan signed an agreement with Vichy France that allowed it to establish military bases in Indochina.
• The Dutch East Indies were occupied; independent Thailand was officially neutral; and British and US possessions were vulnerable.
• July 1941: the USA renounced the 1911 Japanese–American Commercial Treaty and stopped the shipment of steel and scrap iron to countries outside of the western hemisphere except for the UK.
• This was considered an aggressive act by the Japanese who received half of all oil, iron and steel from the USA.
• The Japanese offered diplomatic concessions: they promised neutrality if the USA went to war with Germany and Italy, and promised not to attack the Soviet Union.
• The USA demanded withdrawal from China, which was unthinkable to the Japanese.
• November 20, 1941: the Japanese Navy dispatched aircraft carriers to Hawaii, maintaining radio silence until they reached their destination.
• December 7, 1941: Japanese bombers took the US naval base at Pearl Harbor by surprise and attacked.
  • $19$ ships were sunk or damaged, including all 8 battleships; 188 airplanes were destroyed and 2471 people were killed.
• attacks on Guam, Midway Island and the Philippines followed.
• December 8, 1941: the USA declared war on Japan.
• December 11: Germany and Italy declared war on the USA in compliance with the terms of the Tripartite Pact.

Hemispheric Response to Pearl Harbor

• After the USA declared war, all nine independent Central American and Caribbean countries followed suit while Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico immediately severed ties with the Axis powers.
• January 1942: the Pan-American Union held a conference of foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro, reaffirming hemispheric solidarity and passing a resolution to sever ties with the Axis powers.
• All but Argentina and Chile complied.
• The German response was to target not just US but Mexican and Brazilian vessels.
• Mexico declared war in May 1942.
• By August 1942, the Germans had sunk 18 Brazilian ships, including five between August 15 and August 17.
• This led directly to a Brazilian declaration of war on August 22, Brazilian participation in the Battle of the Atlantic and the development of the Brazilian expeditionary force, which sent ground troops to Italy and dispatched over 25,000 Brazilians to Europe.

Chile and Argentina's Response

• Chile was in the middle of presidential elections and did not want to alienate its substantial German population.
• It feared attacks on its lengthy coastline by Japanese or German vessels and argued that the USA lacked the strength to defend the entire Pacific after Pearl Harbor.
• The Germans and Japanese used Santiago as an important espionage site in the Americas.
• By late 1942 the USA began to intercept messages from Berlin and Tokyo, and put pressure on the Chilean government to oust the spies, leading to the deportation of three German nationals.
• Allied successes in the Pacific and North Africa were more effective in ending Chilean neutrality.
• 1943: Chile finally adhered to the terms of the Rio Declaration.
• Chile only declared war in February 1945, when Allied victory was assured and the USA threatened to block Chilean membership in the newly created United Nations.
• Argentina was firmly pro-Axis and its government bore similarities to the fascist regimes of Franco and Mussolini - Throughout the 1930s Argentina was the country that expressed the greatest fear of US domination of the region.
• 1943: Ramón Castillo, the leader of the government, died, and this was followed by a military coup.
• Allied countries severed diplomatic ties, putting pressure on Argentina to end its neutrality.
• Juan Perón consolidated power in 1944 and maintained neutrality to maintain support of both pro-Nazi and pro-Allied forces within Argentina.
• March 1945: Argentina was the last country in the Americas to declare war on the Axis.