Policy Failure

A prime casualty of Argentina's economic crisis has been Juan Peron's old dream of hemispheric influence and prestige. Two years ago, Peronista pesos and propaganda were potent in many parts of Latin America. Last week, with Argentina virtually broke, the grandiose hope that Peronismo could be exported, and that Argentina might lead other nations to a cozy "third position" between the U.S. and Russia, had gone glimmering. Never too much liked by her poorer neighbors, now blamed for highhandedness and unfulfilled promises, Argentina found herself without a real friend in South America.

Back in 1946-47, flush with $1.2 billion in war-accumulated balances, Argentina had negotiated trade agreements with Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru. To many, it looked like a good beginning for the creation of a satellite bloc. But most of these lavish deals were never ratified or carried through; by last week it was clear that they had accomplished nothing. ,

Hit-&-Run. On the contrary, Argentine hit-&-run trading had damaged ties with these countries. Chile, for example, was trying to get along with less Argentine beef, and Uruguay without Argentine tourists. Even Paraguay, virtually an Argentine colony, was turning more & more to Brazil. Brazil herself, Argentina's best customer in Latin America, muttered angrily over the recent Argentine emergency decree blocking off all imports.

Meanwhile Argentine propaganda had sagged sadly. Sometimes this resulted from plain blunders. Last November an Argentine first secretary was charged with meddling in a military plot in Chile and was hustled out of the country. Pushing diplomats, who "befriended" newspapers and radio stations in Rio, Mexico City and Havana, won few friends.

Rise & Fall. Even the highpressure labor-attache program had failed to get results. With special expense accounts and special credentials from President Peron, the attaches (who were sent to 50 countries) were usually the fanciest spenders and most zealous propaganda-pushers at any Argentine embassy. It was a labor attache who thought up the stunt of having Eva Peron send clothing to needy Washington schoolchildren. Scores of labor leaders were sent on paid-up junkets to see the New Argentina. But the drive to build up a Peronista hemispheric labor federation came to nothing.

Last week in Buenos Aires, a presidential decree abolished the special status of labor attaches, reclassified them as ordinary Foreign Office functionaries. For those who had watched Argentine diplomatic ways over the last few years, the change was like a formal announcement of the failure of a policy.

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