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Not Quite British: A Study of External Influences on the Argentine Navy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Varun Sahni
Varun Sahni
Affiliation:
Resident Fellow of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi.
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Extract

Political studies of military institutions in Latin America have tended to lay heavy stress on their external linkages, with a good deal of emphasis being placed upon the ‘differential degrees of dependence upon other countries for supplies, parts, training and equipment by the various service branches’. This particularly the case when scholars attempt to explain why two military institutions differ in their political behaviour and ideological orientation. Thus, we find Lieuwen asserting that

[t]he aristocratic tendencies of [Latin American] naval officers… often were moderated by the democratic views of the British and United States officers who were their professional advisers. Conversely, before World War II, authoritarian attitudes of some Latin American armies were reinforced by the influence of German, Spanish, and Italian military missions.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , October 1993 , pp. 489 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1. García, José Z., ‘Military Factions and Military Intervention in Latin America’, in Simon, Sheldon W. (ed.), The Military and Security in the Third World (Boulder, 1978), p. 49Google Scholar.

2. Lieuwen, Edwin, Arms and Politics in Latin America (New York, 1961), p. 131Google Scholar.

3. Johnson, John J., The Military and Society in Latin America (Stanford, 1964), p. 141Google Scholar.

4. Goldwert, Marvin, Democracy, Militarism and Nationalism in Argentina, 1930–1966: An Interpretation (Austin, 1972), p. 73Google Scholar.

5. English, Adrian J., Armed Forces of Latin America: Their Histories, Development, Present Strength and Military Potential (London, 1984), p. 65Google Scholar.

6. English, Adrian J., Regional Defence Profile No 1: Latin America (London, 1988), p. 26Google Scholar.

7. Interview with Capitán de Navío (R.E.) Dr Carlos Raimondi, 7 Sep. 1987, Buenos Aires.

8. Rouquié, Alain, The Military and the State in Latin America (Berkeley, 1987), p. 79Google Scholar.

9. Ibid.

10. Potash, Robert A., The Army & Politics in Argentina 1928–1945: Yrigoyen to Perón (Stanford, 1969), pp. 3–4Google Scholar.

11. Rouquié, Alain, Poder militar y sociedad politica en la Argentina: I. hasta 1943 (Buenos Aires, 1981), pp. 103–4Google Scholar.

12. Alain Rouquié, Military and State, p. 80.

13. Blanksten, George I., Perón's Argentina (Chicago, 1953), p. 307Google Scholar.

14. One is alluding, of course, to the books by Potash and Rouquié. The first volume of both these studies have already been cited above; the respective second volumes are Potash, Robert A., The Army & Politics in Argentina 1945–1962: Perón to Frondizi (Stanford, 1980)Google Scholar, and Rouquié, Alain, Poder militar y sociedad política en la Argentina: II. 1945–1973 (Buenos Aires, 1982)Google Scholar.

15. My doctoral thesis seeks to plug this gap. See Sahni, Varun, ‘The Argentine Navy as an Autonomous Actor in Argentine Politics’, unpubl. D.Phil, diss., University of Oxford, 1991Google Scholar.

16. Rouquié, Poder militar y sociedad política, p. 102.

17. See Milia, Fernando A., ‘The Argentine Navy Revisited’, Naval History, Winter 1990, pp. 24–9Google Scholar. The Spanish version of this interesting article contains some additional information on Argentine naval ships: ‘La Armada Argentina: Un perfil sociopolí’, Boletín del Centro Naval(BCN), vol. 107, nos. 758/759, July/December 1989, pp. 490–8.

18. Pablo Eusebio Arguindeguy, ‘Las distintas vertientes en la formación de la Armada Argentina’, typewritten memorandum sent to the author of this article, August 1990.

19. Ordenanzas Generales para la Armada: Proyecto de la Comisión Coredactora, vol. I (Buenos Aires, 1884), which converted the Spanish ‘ordenanzas’ into Argentine ‘reglamentos’.

20. Arguindeguy, typewritten memorandum.

21. Interview with Contraalmirante (R.E.) Milia, Fernando A., 27 08 1987, office of the Boletín del Centro Naval, Buenos AiresGoogle Scholar.

22. Ordenanzas Generales de la Armada Naval: Parte Primera: Sobre la Gobernación Militar y Marinera de la Armada en General, y Uso de sus Fuerzas en la Mar, 2 vols (Madrid, 1793).

23. Reglamento General del Servicio Naval (Buenos Aires, 1928 and 1936).

24. Reglamento General del Servicio Naval: Libro I: Del Servicio en General (Buenos Aires, 1961) and Reglamento General del Servicio Naval: Libro II: Del Servicio a Bordo, 2 vols: vol. I, Del Personal Superior, vol. II, Del Personal Subalterno (Buenos Aires, 1959).

25. de Imaz, José Luis, Los Que Mandan (Those Who Rule) (Albany, 1970), pp. 72–3Google Scholar.

26. This Code of Honour is quoted directly from the Ordenanzas Generates de la Armada Naval of Carlos III.

27. There have been some changes in rank nomenclatures since the early days of the institution. Both the defunct and the present-day Argentine Navy rank designations are given in the Appendix, along with their Army, Air Force, Commonwealth and US equivalents.

28. Milia, ‘La Armada Argentina’, BCN.

29. Admiral Raoul Castex (1878–1968) wrote about the submarine experience in the First World War with great insight. His major work is Théories Stratégiques (1927).

30. Mahan, Admiral Alfred Thayer (1840–1914), US naval officer and historian who taught at the US Naval War College for nearly three decades. His most influential work, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1670–1783, was published in 1890Google Scholar.

31 As Admiral Milia puts it in his Naval History article, p. 28.

32 Segundo Rosa Storni (1876–1954) graduated from the Escuela Naval Militar in 1897 at the top of the 21st Promoción, and retired as a vice-admiral in 1935. His reputation as a thinker on international legal and maritime issues went far beyond Argentina; within the Navy itself it has taken on mythical proportions. Although staunchly pro-Allied himself, he served as the foreign minister of the pro-Axis military government that took over power in 1943, but he resigned when he was unable to convince his US counterpart Cordell Hull to furnish Lend-Lease aid to Argentina even though she was neutral in the war. His most important book is Intereses argentinos en el mar (1920).

33 Interview with Almirante Milia.

34 SirCorbett, Julian Stafford (1854–1922), whose most important book is Some Principles of Maritime Strategy (1911)Google Scholar.

35 Interview with Almirante Milia.

36 Armada Argentina, Dirección de Instrucción Naval, Arte del mando naval (Buenos Aires, 1957 and 1974)Google Scholar.

37 United States Naval Academy, Naval Leadership (Annapolis, 1949)Google Scholar.

38 Arte del mando naval, p. 290.

39 Unrecorded conversation with Almirante Milia, Aug. 1990.

40 Bianchi, Ariel Edgardo, Guía para el ejercicio del mando naval: De los pequeños grupos (Buenos Aires, 1990)Google Scholar.

41 Goldwert, Democracy, Militarism, and Nationalism, p. 73.

42 Imaz, Los que mandan, p. 73.

43 Rouquié, Poder militar y sociedad político, p. 103.

44 Ibid.

45 United States, Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1934, vol. IV, p. 541Google Scholar.

46 FRUS, 1940, vol. V, p. 28.

47 Memorandum, no. 835.24/331. Quoted in FRUS, 1942, vol. V, p. 379.

48 Aide-Mémoire, 16 July 1946, no. 810.20 Defense/7–1646. Quoted in FRUS, 1946, vol. XI, pp. 278–9.

49 Ibid.

50 There is an acute lack of data on this topic, which makes a rigorous analysis of this important aspect virtually impossible. The Argentine Navy seems to be hypersensitive (‘security conscious’) about this particular aspect of professional training. So far, the Director General de Instrucción Naval has not responded to a formal request from me in September 1990 for information on the number of Argentine naval officers who have attended professional courses abroad.

51 Rouquié, Poder militar y sociedad política, pp. 102–3.

52 Ibid.

53 These data were graciously supplied by Almirante Milia in 1987, who had compiled them for a study he was then undertaking on the various external influences on the Argentine Navy. This research has since been published in the Naval History and BCN articles cited above.

54 The newly-built battle cruisers Garibaldi, San Martín, Belgrano and Pueyrredón, and the much older cruiser Patagonia.

55 Among them, the battleships Almirante Brown, Libertad and Independencia, the cruisers Veinticinco de Mayo, Nueve de Julio, Patria and Buenos Aires, and the famous corvette Uruguay.

56 Moreno and Rivadavia.

57 Rouquié, Poder militar y sociedad política, pp. 102–3.

58 The information on the warships of the Argentine Navy and their respective sources of acquisition that is presented in the section that follows is to a large extent derived from vols 3–6 of Arguindeguy's, Pablo Eusebio mammoth study, Apuntes sobre los buques de la Armada Argentina: 1810–1970 (Buenos Aires, 1972)Google Scholar. Almirante Arguindeguy also generously sent me a typewritten memoradum with useful supplementary information. The sections on the Argentine Navy in the two books by Adrian English (both cited above) were useful; Jane's Fighting Ships, the standard reference source in the field, was also extensively used. The idea for Table 2 itself came from Almirante Arguindeguy. It is worth highlighting that this is a tabulation of non-Argentine-built vessels only: thus the discrepancy with Table 1.

59 Renamed General Belgrano in September 1955 during the Revolución Libertadora military uprising which overthrew the government of Juan Domingo Perón, ‘17 October’ being one of the most significant days in the Peronist calender.

60 Milia, ‘La Armada Argentina’, BCN, p. 498.

61 The survey that follows of Argentine naval aircraft is heavily dependent upon the excellent history written by Arguindeguy, Pablo Eusebio, Historia de la Aviación Naval Argentina, 2 vols (Buenos Aires, 1980)Google Scholar.

62 Milia, ‘The Argentine Navy Revisited’, p. 29.

63 Rouquié, Poder militar y sociedad político, p. 103.

64 Imaz, Los que mandan, pp. 72–3. While the general point made by Imaz is correct, he is wrong about the ‘code of honour’ which, as we have seen in an earlier section of this article, the Argentine Navy derives not from Britain but Spain.

65 Arguindeguy, typewritten memorandum.

66 Ibid.

67 Milia, ‘The Argentine Navy Revisited’, p. 29.