Relations were severely strained in the era of World War II, when Argentina refused to declare war on Nazi Germany, and became the only Latin American nation not to receive American aid. Relations continued to be difficult when the Perons were in power. Relations were strained in 1982 after the US supported the United Kingdom against Argentina. Since 1998, Argentina has been a major non-NATO ally, partly owing to Argentina's assistance to the United States in the Gulf War (known as Operativo Alfil). Relations have been strained at times over the past few years, especially during the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration, but they improved during the presidency of Mauricio Macri (2015 - 2019) and Javier Milei (2023 - present).
After Argentina became independent from Spanish rule, the United States formally recognized the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, the legal predecessor to Argentina, on January 27, 1823. The bilateral relations have seesawed over the last century and a half between periods of greater cooperation and periods of tension over ideology and finance. There has never been a threat of war.[3]
In 1833, the US Navy shelled the Falkland Islands, at the time under Argentine control, in retaliation for the seizing of American ships fishing in Argentine waters. The new constitution of 1853 was based in part on the American Constitution. In 1853, a commercial treaty was concluded between the two nations.[4]
1870–1930
Argentina was closely linked to the British economy in the late 19th century; and as such there was minimal contact with the United States. When the United States began promoting the Pan American Union, some Argentines were suspicious that it was indeed a device to lure the country into the US economic orbit, but most businessmen responded favorably and bilateral trade grew briskly after the United States and did care of duties on Argentine wool in 1893.
Relations soured when Argentina refused to join the Allies in the First World War. Argentina had large British and German populations and both countries had made large-scale investments in Argentina. However, as a prosperous neutral it greatly expanded trade with the United States during the war and exported meat, grain and wool to the Allies particularly to Britain, providing generous loans and becoming a net creditor to the Allied side, a policy known as "benevolent neutrality".[5]
Argentina's policy during the Second World War was marked by two distinct phases. During the early years of the war, Argentine President Roberto M. Ortiz sought to sell food and wool to Britain. He even proposed to US President Franklin Roosevelt for both countries to join the Allies together as non-belligerents in 1940. However his proposal was snubbed at the time, as Roosevelt was trying to get re-elected.[5]
After the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor, US foreign policy worked to unite all of Latin America in a coalition against Germany, but Argentina's neutralist stance had hardened since the resignation of Ortiz who resigned because of poor health. The United States worked to pressure Argentina into the war against the wishes of Britain, which supported Argentine neutrality in an effort to maintain vital provisions of beef and wheat to the Allies that were safe from German U-boat attacks.[5] Most of the beef and the wheat consumed in Britain came from Argentina.[6]
US policy backfired after the military seized power in a coup in 1943. Relations grew worse, prompting the powerful US farm lobby to promote the economic and diplomatic isolation of Argentina and attempt to keep it out of the United Nations. The policy was reversed when Argentina became the last Latin American nation to declare war on Germany in March 1945. Argentina had hosted a fairly-organized pro-German element before the war that had been controlled by German ambassadors. It operated openly, unlike in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Historians[7] agree that the affinity between Argentina and Germany was greatly exaggerated.[8]
The Argentine government remained neutral until the closing weeks of the war and after the war quietly tolerated and in some cases aided the entry of German scientists and some notable war criminals including Josef Mengele, Adolf Eichmann, Erich Priebke, Josef Schwammberger, and Gerhard Bohne [de] who were fleeing Europe through ratlines.[9] The voyages of German submarines U-530 and U-977 to Argentina at the end of the war led to legends, apocryphal stories, and conspiracy theories that they had transported escaping Nazi leaders (such as Adolf Hitler) and/or Nazi gold to South America. Historians have shown there was little gold and probably only a few Nazis, but the myths lived on and helped to sour relations with the United States.[10][11] When Juan Perón ran for president in 1945 and 1946, US Ambassador Spruille Braden attacked him with a "Blue Book on Argentina," but public opinion rallied behind Perón. Relations remained tense throughout the Perón years, as he held fascist sympathies, tried to remain neutral in the Cold War and continued to harbor Nazi war criminals. Washington blocked funds from international agencies and restricted trade and investment opportunities.[12] Meanwhile Peron championed Anti-Americanism across Latin America, and financed radical elements in other countries. He did not, however, support the USSR in the Cold War.[13]
1955-1990s
After Perón was ousted in 1955, relations improved dramatically. President Arturo Frondizi became the first Argentine president to visit the United States in 1959. Argentina provided support for the American Alliance for Progress, the American invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, and the isolation of Cuba after 1960.[14]
By 1976, US human rights groups were denouncing the "Dirty War" waged against leftist dissidents by the repressive military regime in Argentina.[15][16] They demanded congressional control over foreign aid funding to regimes violating human rights. The US State Department saw Argentina as a bulwark of anticommunism in South America, and in early April 1976, the US Congress approved a request by the Ford administration, written and supported by Henry Kissinger, to grant $50,000,000 in security assistance to the junta.[17]
In 1977 and 1978, the United States sold more than $120,000,000 in spare military parts to Argentina, and in 1977, the Department of Defense granted $700,000 to train 217 Argentine military officers.[18] By the mid-1970s, when détente with the Soviets softened anti-communism and President Jimmy Carter highlighted issues of human rights, US activists escalated their attacks and in 1978 secured a congressional cutoff of all US arms transfers to Argentina.[19] Argentina then turned largely to Israel for weapons sales.
American-Argentine relations improved dramatically under the Reagan administration, which asserted that the Carter administration had weakened US diplomatic relationships with Cold War allies in Argentina, and it reversed the previous administration's official condemnation of the junta's human rights practices. The re-establishment of diplomatic ties allowed for the CIA collaboration with the Argentine intelligence service in arming and training the Nicaraguan Contras against the Sandinista government. The 601 Intelligence Battalion, for example, trained Contras at Lepaterique base, in Honduras.[20] Argentina also provided security advisors, intelligence training and some material support to forces in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to suppress local rebel groups as part of a US-sponsored program, Operation Charly.
Argentine military and intelligence co-operation with the Reagan administration ended in 1982, when Argentina seized the British territory of the Falkland Islands in an attempt to quell domestic and economic unrest. The move was condemned by the US, which provided intelligence to the British government in its successful effort to regain control over the islands.
The US has a positive bilateral relationship with Argentina based on many common strategic interests, including non-proliferation, counternarcotics, counterterrorism, the fight against human trafficking, and issues of regional stability, as well as the strength of commercial ties. Argentina signed a Letter of Agreement with the US Department of State in 2004, opening the way for enhanced cooperation with the US on counternarcotics issues and enabling the US to begin providing financial assistance to the Argentine government for its counternarcotics efforts. In recognition of its contributions to international security and peacekeeping, the US government designated Argentina as a major non-NATO ally in January 1998.
21st century
The Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Argentine Ministry of Defense hold an annual Bilateral Working Group Meeting, alternating between Argentina and Washington, DC. Also, both nations exchange information through alternating annual joint staff talks, military educational exchanges, and operational officer exchange billets. Argentina is a participant in the Three-Plus-One regional mechanism (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and the US), which focuses on the co-ordination of counterterrorism policies in the triborder region.[21]
Although bilateral relations were strained after the US supported the UK on the Falklands Wars. Currently, the US holds a position of neutrality on the issue of the ownership of the Falkland Islands. It acknowledges the de facto British control of the Falklands but has no position on the sovereignty claim over the islands.[22]
The US delivers COVID vaccines to Argentina through the COVAX program in 2021
U.S.-Argentine cooperation also includes science and technology initiatives in the fields of space, peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and the environment. In June 2007, the U.S. and Argentina modernized a bilateral civil aviation agreement to update safety and security safeguards and allow a significant increase in flight frequencies between the two countries, which hold excellent potential for increased tourism and business travel. An active media, together with widespread interest in culture and society from the US, make Argentina a receptive environment for the information and cultural exchange work of the U.S. Embassy. The Fulbright scholarship program has more than tripled the annual number of U.S. and Argentine academic grantees since 1994, and the U.S. Embassy is actively working to increase other education exchanges.
The stock of U.S. investment in Argentina reached $13.3 billion in 2011, 14% of all foreign direct investment in Argentina at the time and second only to Spain. U.S. investment in Argentina is concentrated in the energy, manufacturing, information technology, and financial sectors. US-based firms comprised nearly 1/3 of the 100 most respected companies in Argentina published annually by Argentina's largest newspaper, Clarín.[24]
The United States is Argentina's fourth-largest export market (mainly energy staples, steel, and wine), and third-largest source of imports (mainly industrial supplies such as chemicals and machinery).[25] Argentina itself is a relatively minor trade partner for the United States, its imports from the U.S. of $9.9 billion making up 0.7% of total U.S. exports and its exports to the U.S. of $4.5 billion only 0.2% of U.S. imports; Argentina however is among the few nations with which the United States routinely maintains significant merchandise trade surpluses,[26] and the $5.4 billion surplus with Argentina in 2011 was the tenth-largest for the U.S. in the world.[27] The U.S. earned a further $4.1 billion surplus in trade in services with Argentina in 2011.[28] A record 690,000 Argentine nationals visited the United States in 2013, making Argentina the 15th largest source of foreign tourism into the U.S.[29]
In 2012 Argentina requested the assistance of the World Trade Organization in hosting consultations to discuss the United States ban on Argentine lemons.
Public opinion
In 2005, Argentina was labelled as "the most anti-American country in the entire Western Hemisphere."[30] Global opinion polls taken in 2006, 2007 and 2012 show that Argentine public opinion had become skeptical of U.S. foreign policy at the time. According to the U.S. Global Leadership Report, only 19% of Argentines approved of U.S. foreign policy, the lowest rating for any surveyed country in the Americas.[31][32]
Argentine public opinion of the U.S. and its policies improved during the Obama administration, in 2010 was divided about evenly (42% to 41%) between those who approve or disapprove. As of 2015, Argentine views of the United States' policies are evenly divided with 43% of Argentines having a favorable view and 43% having an unfavorable view.[33]
Diplomatic exchanges
U.S. Embassy functions
US Ambassador Residence in Buenos Aires
The U.S. Mission in Buenos Aires carries out the traditional diplomatic function of representing the U.S. Government and people in discussions with the Argentine Government, and more generally, in relations with the people of Argentina. The embassy is focused on increasing people-to-people contacts, and promoting outreach and exchanges on a wide range of issues.
Political, economic, and science officers deal directly with the Argentine Government in advancing U.S. interests but are also available to brief U.S. citizens on general conditions in the country. Officers from the U.S. Foreign Service, Foreign Commercial Service, and Foreign Agricultural Service work closely with the hundreds of U.S. companies that do business in Argentina, providing information on Argentine trade and industry regulations and assisting U.S. companies starting or maintaining business ventures in Argentina.
The embassy's Consular Section monitors the welfare and whereabouts of more than 20,000 U.S. citizen residents of Argentina and more than 250,000 U.S. tourists each year.
Consular personnel also provide US citizens help regarding passports, voting, Social Security, and other services. With the end of Argentine participation in the Visa Waiver Program in February 2002, Argentine tourists, students, and those who seek to work in the United States must have nonimmigrant visas. The Consular Section processes non-immigrant visa applications for persons who wish to visit the United States for tourism, studies, temporary work, or other purposes, and immigrant visas for persons who qualify to make the United States a permanent home.
Attachés
Attaches accredited to Argentina from the U.S. Department of Justice (including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation), the Department of Homeland Security (including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection), the Federal Aviation Administration, and other federal agencies work closely with Argentine counterparts on international law enforcement cooperation, aviation security, and other issues of concern. The U.S. Department of Defense is represented by the U.S. Military Group and the Defense Attache Office. These organizations ensure close military-to-military contacts, and defense and security cooperation with the armed forces of Argentina.
Fernando Oris de Roa, an executive with extensive experience in Argentine agriculture, was appointed Ambassador to the United States by President Mauricio Macri on January 11, 2018.[35]
The post had been vacant since the April 3, 2017, resignation of Martín Lousteau over an arms procurement scandal involving a $2 billion request disclosed by the office of Congressman Pete Visclosky but not authorized by the Argentine Congress.[36] Chargé d'Affaires Sergio Pérez Gunella had served as acting ambassador in the interim.
After Alberto Fernández took office in December 2019, he designated Jorge Argüello as ambassador to the United States. Argüello's credentials were accepted in Washington, where President Donald Trump asked Argüello to tell president Fernández that "[he] can count with this President" regarding the Argentine debt with the International Monetary Fund.[37][38]
On February 22, 2020, Argüello said that he was working to pave the way for a meeting between the two presidents.[39]
^Jürgen Müller, Nationalsozialismus in Lateinamerika: Die Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP in Argentinien, Brasilien, Chile und Mexiko, 1931–1945 (1997) 567pp.
^Randall B. Woods, "Hull and Argentina: Wilsonian Diplomacy in the Age of Roosevelt," Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs (1974) 16#3 pp. 350–371 in JSTOR
^Ronald C. Newton, The "Nazi Menace" in Argentina, 1931–1947 (Stanford U.P., 1992)
^Daniel Stahl, "Odesa und das 'Nazigold' in Südamerika: Mythen und ihre Bedeutungen' ["Odesa and "Nazi Gold" in South America: Myths and Their Meanings"] Jahrbuch fuer Geschichte Lateinamerikas (2011) Vol. 48, pp 333–360.
^Roger R. Trask, "Spruille Braden versus George Messersmith: World War II, the Cold War, and Argentine Policy, 1945-1947." Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 26.1 (1984): 69-95.
^ Glenn J. Dorn, "‘Bruce Plan’ and Marshall Plan: The United States's Disguised Intervention against Peronism in Argentina, 1947–1950." International History Review 21.2 (1999): 331-351.
^Jentleson and Paterson, Encyclopedia of US foreign relations. (1997) 1:89.
^Paul H. Lewis, Guerrillas and Generals: the ‘Dirty War’ in Argentina (Praeger, 2002)
^Thomas C. Wright, State Terrorism in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and International Human Rights (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007)
^William Michael Schmidli, "Human rights and the Cold War: the campaign to halt the Argentine 'dirty war'’", Cold war history (2012) 12#2 pp 345–365. online
Allison, Victoria. "White Evil: Peronist Argentina in the US Popular Imagination Since 1955," American Studies International (2004) 42#1 pp 4–48. covers 1955 to 1999
Dorn, Glenn J. "‘Bruce Plan’and Marshall Plan: The United States's Disguised Intervention against Peronism in Argentina, 1947–1950." International History Review 21.2 (1999): 331-351. online
Fifer, Valerie. United States Perceptions of Latin America, 1850-1930: A 'New West' South of Capricorn? (Manchester U. Press, 1991). 203 pp.
Frank, Gary. Struggle for hegemony in South America: Argentina, Brazil, and the United States during the Second World War (Routledge, 2021).
Greenberg, Daniel J. "From Confrontation to Alliance: Peronist Argentina's Diplomacy with the United States, 1945–1951." Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 12#24 (1987): 1-23.
Lluch, Andrea. "US Companies in Argentina: Trade and Investment Patterns (1890–1930)." Journal of Evolutionary Studies in Business 4.1 (2018): 70-108. online 1:25-31 and passim.
Nisley, Thomas J. "You can’t force a friendship? An analysis of US/Argentine relations." International Politics 55.5 (2018): 612–630.
Norden, Deborah, and Roberto Russell. The United States and Argentina: Changing Relations in a Changing World (Routledge, 2002).
Peterson, Harold F. Argentina and the United States 1810-1960 (1964)
Rodriguez, Julio. "Argentinean Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 141–150. online
Russell, Roberto. "Argentina and the United States: a distant relationship," in Jorge I. Domínguez, Rafael Fernández de Castro, eds, Contemporary U.S.-Latin American Relations (2011) pp 101–23. online
Sheinin, David M. K. Argentina & the United States: An Alliance Contained (2006) 285pp. covers 1800 to 1999
Sullivan, Mark P., and Rebecca M. Nelson. Argentina: Background and US Relations (Congressional Research Service, 2016). online
Trask, Roger R. "Spruille Braden versus George Messersmith: World War II, the Cold War, and Argentine Policy, 1945-1947". Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 26.1 (1984): 69-95.
Tulchin, Joseph S. Argentina and the United States: A Conflicted Relationship (1990)
Whitaker, Arthur P. The United States and the southern cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay (1976) online
Whitaker, Arthur P. The United States and Argentina (1954)
Woods, Randall B. "Hull and Argentina: Wilsonian Diplomacy in the Age of Roosevelt" Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 16#3 (1974) pp. 350–371 online
Woods, Randall Bennett. The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the Good Neighbor: The United States and Argentina, 1941-1945 (1979)
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