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The Argentine Menace #486: Ray Josephs Papers

Photographs of leaders influential in Argentina in the 1940s from The American Legion Magazine, April 1946. Box 93, Ray Josephs papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
Photographs of leaders influential in Argentina in the 1940s from The American Legion Magazine, April 1946. Box 93, Ray Josephs papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

Ray Josephs was an American journalist who spent more than a decade reporting from Buenos Aires. By 1946 he was convinced that the political situation in Argentina represented a menace to the people in Argentina. But that wasn’t all. He felt that Argentinian politics menaced the stability of Latin America.

Problems had arisen when pro-democratic president Roberto Ortiz was replaced first by Ramon Castillo and then by a military junta. The military leaders were pressured by the U.S. to enter World War II in alliance with the Allied powers. They resisted, insisting on maintaining Argentinian neutrality.

There were practical reasons. On one hand, Argentina had a longstanding trade relationship with England. On the other hand, nearly one hundred major Nazi firms were operating in Argentina and there was a large German population. To observers like Ray Josephs, it seemed that members of the junta admired the Nazi’s fascist ability to mobilize the masses.

Learn more about the complexities of politics in Argentina in the 1940s by reading the Ray Josephs papers at UW’s American Heritage Center