| Review of: | Argentina and the United States: An Alliance Contained by David M. K. Sheinin |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | James F. Siekmeier |
| Reviewed in: | Diplomatic History |
| Date accepted online: | 10/04/2008 |
| Published in print: | Volume 31, Issue 05, Pages 949-951 |
Book Review: From Conflict to Cooperation in the Southern Cone
All too often, historians studying bilateral relations between the United States and specific Latin American nations focus on understanding that relationship in isolation from larger hemispheric events; David M. K. Sheinin's excellent new book on U.S.-Argentine relations does not suffer from this problem. Sheinin argues that the connection between the United States and Argentina is predicated on the promotion of shared interests-commercial, strategic, and cultural-in the face of larger hemispheric occurrences. In particular during the Cold War, the United States viewed its relationship with Argentina through the lens of its larger Latin American policies, and Argentina used its relationship with the United States to shape its relationships with its neighboring countries. During the Cold War, this meant fighting Communist and left-wing subversion. Moreover, as Argentine foreign policy has been highly influenced by competing domestic political forces, most notably the military, one must examine the interrelationship between those forces to understand the trajectories of Argentine foreign policy and Argentine-U.S. relations.
As there has not been a survey of Argentine-U.S. relations in over fifteen years, Sheinin's book fills an important gap in the historiography of inter-American relations. Indeed, of those previous surveys, few have devoted attention to the foundation of that relationship in the nineteenth century. Sheinin's book, however, devotes the first chapter to examining the ways in which initial trade relations during the early and midnineteenth century perpetuated ideological and political aspirations for Argentineans and North Americans alike. Instead of competing for influence in the region, these two burgeoning nations forged an unlikely and cooperative friendship. Subsequent chapters build upon that narrative, highlighting the pivotal role that evolving economic relations played in shaping the overall nature of the U.S.-Argentine entente during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moreover, Sheinin skillfully weaves the interesting similarities and marked differences of the respective national economic developments. Both countries became almost simultaneously agricultural powerhouses through the elimination of their respective indigenous populations and the glorification of the romantic, individualistic cattle-herding cowboys/gauchos. Yet the decentralized political and economic system that developed in the United States, with its economically powerful midwestern and western cities, contrasted with Argentina's more centralized system of power rooted in the capital city of Buenos Aires.
Once Sheinin unpacks the economic influences in part responsible for facilitating this international friendship, he turns his attention to the ways in which the cultural exchange affected the overall relationship. Although other scholars have addressed the U.S. cultural diffusion to Argentina, few have fully explored the Argentine cultural influence in the United States. Sheinin points to the arrival of the "sexually charged" tango in dance halls and speakeasies (p. 38) in various U.S. cities during the 1920s and the wide distribution of Argentine films during the 1930s (p. 66) as evidence of this exchange. This cultural exchange was also shaped by issues of race. At the turn of the twentieth century, Argentineans of European descent saw themselves as ethnically superior to their nonwhite Latin neighbors, and viewed the United States-politically dominated by whites-as the paragon of modernity from which to model. For its part, because Argentina was also primarily run by those of European ancestry, the United States often viewed Argentina as superior to nations in the region with large Indian populations. At other times, however, despite the racial affinity between U.S. and Argentine elites, U.S. leaders viewed Argentine society through a racist lens (pp. 36-38).
Sheinin turns on its head the conventional view of seeing points of contention in the U.S.-Argentine relationship as reflective of the overall nature of the diplomacy between the two nations. He perceptively argues that the relationship was in large part cooperative, punctuated by short but significant periods of conflict (p. 4). Previous interpretations have overemphasized the importance of Argentina's initial refusal to declare war on the Axis powers during World War II, and the conflicts that arose between the United States and Argentina in the late 1940s when the charismatic-and often anti-U.S.-President Juan D. Perón led Argentina. Moreover, a tacit assumption found in the work of some authors is a false dichotomy between Argentina's neighbor and sometime-rival Brazil which concludes that as U.S.-Brazilian relations were historically close, U.S.-Argentine relations therefore must have been poor. Sheinin does not fall into this trap. The U.S.-Argentine cooperation over nuclear policy is an excellent example. After a somewhat rocky start, the United States and Argentina signed a nuclear cooperation agreement in 1953. The accord provided Argentineans with information and technology on an Argonaut experimental reactor and the U.S. government with the chance to conduct aerial surveys of those zones thought to contain uranium-rich deposits (p. 95). Sheinin argues that these negotiations concerning the highly sensitive issue of international nuclear policy are reflective of the true strength of the relationship. An international relationship marred by constant conflict could not have engaged in such a compromise.
Sheinin's well-balanced coverage of time periods coupled with his development of these two important themes-cultural influence and continuing cooperation-make this book both path breaking and a first-rate work of scholarship. That said, more time could have been devoted to the origins of the Cold War relationship following the 1955 military overthrow of populist President Perón. This coup proved to be crucial to U.S.-Argentine relations, as the military continued to lead Argentina through many of the most important periods of the Cold War. The dictatorships of the Cold War advanced anti-Communist rhetoric as a fundamental tenet of Argentine nationalism, and advanced the protection of the Argentine elite as fundamental to Argentine national security. This foreign policy meshed nicely with U.S. Cold War ideology; as such U.S. and Argentine strategic interests coincided, resulting in the National Security Doctrine which set forth shared assumptions and techniques for countering Communist and left-wing subversion (a discussion of which Sheinin uses to open his book, introducing the monograph's major themes). A closer analysis of the rapid change in U.S.-Argentine relations in the late 1950s, from the frostiness of U.S. relations with Perón to the friendliness of the North Americans' perceptions of the military regimes that followed, would have set a firmer context for understanding the various twists and turns in the relationship with the onset of the Cuban Revolution and the multiple crises of the 1960s and 1970s.
The above caveat aside, however, this is an excellent, well-written book, rooted in extensive research in primary and secondary sources from both nations. The balance of breadth coupled with the depth of analysis is admirable and, undoubtedly, the book will be the standard one-volume study of Argentine-U.S. relations for years to come.