Guerrillas and Generals: The Dirty War in Argentina

by Paul H. Lewis

Book Overview

In this comprehensive, balanced examination of Argentina's Dirty War, Lewis analyzes the causes, describes the ideologies that motivated both sides, and explores the consequences of all-or-nothing politics. The military and guerrillas may seem marginal today, but Lewis questions whether the Dirty War is really over.

Lewis traces the Dirty War's origins back to military interventions in the 1930s and 1940s, and the rise of General Juan Peron's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 027597359X
• ISBN13: 9780275973599
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

I have always been interested to know why the country is such a mess. This book explains why. It does a good job of describing the different sides and motivations of adversaries during the civil war.

Thorough and informative

Guerrillas and Generals is probably one of the best English language descriptions of chaos that engulfed Argentina in the last half of the 20th century. Many of the descriptions of Argentina's dirty war under the military junta that lasted from 1976 to 1983 tend to focus those years alone and give scant attention to what took place before or after. The first half of this book deals with the years leading up to the junta's ascension to power. Thanks the class cleavages exacerbated by populist President Juan Peron and the influences of the cold war and leftist nationalism that swept through Latin America in the post-WWII period, Argentina was facing a serious terrorist revolutionary movement. The 1960s and 1970s experienced an explosion of college attendance in Argentina and campuses became hot beds of radicalism. By itself, that isn't shocking since it was true in many other countries but this occurred under authoritarian governments that, for whatever reason, made little or no effort reign in the faculty and administration that not only tolerated revolutionary radicalism but encouraged it. The revolutionary groups, the Monteneros and ERP were not just idealistic young people fighting for the rights of the poor; they were committed leftists with a strong predilection for violence that a series of military and civilian governments had failed to quell. The hard ball tactics to crush the rebels did not begin with the military coup of March 24, 1976 that overthrew erratic President Isabel Peron (who assumed the Presidency when husband Juan died in 1974). Peron's government had given the military orders to "annihilate" the rebel groups, however, the harshness of tactics and the scope of those targeted greatly expanded after the coup. Lewis is not sentimental about either side, and thus he presents an unbiased description of events. In the process, he takes down some of fashionable myths about the period. First, there is very little evidence the United States had much of anything to do with the junta. While the Administration of U.S. President Gerald Ford didn't raise many objections to the military's actions, the junta had a frosty relationship with Jimmy Carter. Certainly Ford's Secretary of State Henry Kissinger glossed over the junta's actions but the junta received neither help nor inspiration from the Americans. Rather, their guide was the French counterinsurgency strategies in Vietnam and Algeria, which is interesting, given they knew neither strategy was ultimately successful. Nor was the junta a promoter of neoliberal economic policies, as is sometimes suggested by the socialist left, as it carried on the interventionist policies of governments before it. Another aspect that should surprise developed world readers accustomed to civilian control of the armed forces was the status of the military in Argentina. Apart from its tactics in the dirty war, it seemed to operate in its own fiefdom well before the 1970s and was f

Concise and correct, but not perfect

I read this concise and correct book, while I was in Argentina, last year.This book is concise, correct, but even so, it remains whith a few failures.The main failure of this book is to have a bias, against Argentina's generals.This book really recognizes that Argentina was in a war, with strong and sadistic guerrillas, but failures, when it doesn't shows what other thing must Argentina's generals would did.The "desaparecidos" could be just executed under a legal system?The Argentina's dirty war began years before Argentina's culp in 1976 and this shows this. Even with some failures, this book remains the best, I ever read about Argentina's dirty war.

The one book you should read about the Dirty War

I have studied the Argentine Dirty War for over 20 years, and if I were to recommend one book to anyone to read on the subject it would be this one. There are two things that Lewis does which really set this book apart from the literature on the subject so far.First, Lewis describes and makes sense out of all of the background starting with Peron that led up to the Dirty War. This really helps place the Dirty War in its proper context so the reader can comprehend why such terrible things occurred later. He then gives a full account of all the atrocities committed by the Argentine military. In this way he does not exonerate or excuse the Dirty War, but does make sense of why things happened the way they did. Second, Lewis points out that there really was a war going on. The guerrillas were active, were powerful, were committing acts of terrorism and were seriously threatening to destabilize the Argentine state. A lot of anti-military sources try to portray the security threat posed by the guerrillas as a figment of the military's imagination. This was simply not true. There was a real war going on and Lewis shows that this was the case. Lewis does not excuse the ways the military chose to deal with the guerrilla threat, but does explain why rational and normal men would choose to commit such horrorific acts. In their mind they were in a desperate life and death struggle, and they acted accordingly. In retrospect they made some very bad choices, but Lewis helps explain how it all seemed rational and necessary at the time.This book is balanced, honest and cuts through a lot of the cherished popular myths. It is fair to both sides of the conflict. Finally it is well written and flows well. I got through it in two days. This book will become a classic text on the Argentine Dirty War.