Anthony Lewis, “Lessons from Argentina”
New
York Times, January 26th
1984
Main Point:
The United
States, under the Reagan administration,
wrongly supported the military junta in Argentina
and now should realize its mistakes and put support into Raul Alfonsin’s new
Argentinean democracy.
Summary:
Although
the new Argentinean president, Raul Alfonsin, has experienced some “political
folly”, he is attempting to uncover all of the horrendous crimes committed by
the previous military rule in order to gain the respect of the people. The United
States’ Reagan administration was partly
behind this Argentinean military power by the support of an Argentinean arms
trade by Secretary of State Alexander Haig.
The US
Representative to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick, also met with the
military leaders of Argentina
declaring it a symbol of the United States
becoming “more tolerant of ‘authoritarian’ regimes.”
In April of
1982, the British defeated the Argentinean military when they tried to invade
the Falkland Islands.
The United States’
support of Argentina
became more globally apparent and was criticized for claiming that the military’s
crimes were merely “acts of service” to prevent rebellion.
Now,
President Raul Alfonsin is attempting to punish all who participated in these
crimes and place an honest government into power in Argentina. He needs a lot of support but the United
States is unwilling to support the now
democratic government of Argentina.