Fuego en el Magallanes

[maverick]

Fuego en el Magallanes.

The Beagle war.

Prelude

The islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva lay directly south of the Island of Tierra del Fuego, in the Beagle Channel.
Ever since the 19th century the area has been disputed between the nations of Argentina and Chile, two rival powers that have been on the brink of war over territorial disputes including the ones over the Magellan strait, Patagonia and the South Atlantic Islands several times between 1880 and 1977.
Now the Beagle becomes the place where 100 years of rivalry are solved and the gunpowder finally explodes.

The Dawn of War

It all started after the ruling of Queen Elizabeth of England on May 2 of 1977, by which the Beagle channel islands belonged to Chile. Argentina disputed the ruling and sought bilateral negotiations and declared the ruling null on May 5. The crisis continued to escalate, and representatives of the Military Governments of Buenos Aires and Santiago met at Mendoza, in Argentina, and Puerto Montt, in Chile in the early months of 1978 to disccuss the situation and try to reach a peaceful resolution. Nevertheless, both sides were unwilling to make any compromise and where the diplomats proved useless, the soldiers would prove their worth.

Argentinian soldiers and equipment were brought to the Border with Chile in the Boeing 707 and 747 of the Air Force, forces that included the First and Second Army corps, composed of the I Armoured Cavalry Brigade, the X Infantry Brigade, the II Armoured Cavalry Brigade and the VII Infantry Brigade. Other forces mobilized were the Infantry regiment N24, the Air Defense Artillery Group 601 and the Mountain Infantry Brigade IX.

Meanwhile, U$s 180 Million worth of Military equipment is purchased by the Argentinian Government.

General Pinochet feared the superiority of the Argentinian Military in numbers, despite the fact that he had one of the most effective armies of the region, Argentina was not exactly known as the Switzerland of South America.

Of Course, the Chilean Military was mobilized and mostly deployed along the border at Patagonia, although the Military Junta was hardly going to tell the nation that there was a war coming, which everybody else in the Continent already knew.

Operation Soberania.

Despite the incredibly high tension in the Southern Atlantic, the Beagle war did not officially begin until December 11 of 1978, when Operation Soberania was launched.
The first phase of the operation began on December 11, when the presence of Chilean troops at the islands of Deceyt, Freycinet, Hershcel, Wallaston and Hornos was dennounced by the Argentinian Government to the UN Security Council as a clear sign of agression and a threat to the peace proccess.

Before the Chileans could react, the Argentinian offensive came in the form of amphibious landings by the Special troops of the Marine Infantry of the Argentinian Military, which eliminated all resistance in the islands. The Beagle islands were occupied shortly afterwards by argentinian soldiers.

The Chilean response came in the form of a declaration of war and a symbolic defense. Pinochet and his General Staff knew that their best chance was to get the UN or the United States to intervene on their behalf. But until then, they were basically on their own.

The landings at the Channel islands were followed by a massive air campaign with Mirage planes (actually the Israeli version, the Dagger) and Skyhawks from the Aircraft Carrier 25 de Mayo and from Air bases in Patagonia bombing Punta Arenas and Puerto Wiliams, as well as rutes, roads, bridges and other targets related to transportation and supply lines at Magallanes.
The bombings were followed by a land offensive towards Puerto Natales, Puerto Arenas and Porvenir.

Of course, as the shock of the first hours of the war began to disipate, the chileans were able to see the situation more crearly and thus began to mount appropiate defenses and took counter measures to the Argentinian operations. The main problem was that the Argentine invasion was expected for December 21, and thus the Chileans were still making preparations to meet the invading army.

Yet there were still 15.000 troops tasked with the defense of Puerto Natales, Tierra del Fuego and Punta Arenas, meaning that the Argentinian army would not just be marching in as if they were in a parade.
As a matter of fact, the Argentine Military would soon find out that the Chileans were more capable than anticipated, as seen in the quick mobilization of the troops at Tierra del Fuego and the fast response of the Chilean squadron at the Strait of Magallanes, which would later give the argentinians a shocking welcoming to Chile.


To be Continued...

[maverick]

[ninebucks]

Why the hell is Queen Elizabeth randomly settling border disputes on the other side of the planet?

[Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy]

Originally Posted by ninebucks

Why the hell is Queen Elizabeth randomly settling border disputes on the other side of the planet?

It's called "arbitration", and that's actually the way it happened in OTL.

[maverick]

The Battle of the strait of Magallanes.

In the hours following the initial strikes, confusion and chaos reigned through the Chilean High command. But once the smoke of the cannons cleared, the situation became apparent to the generals and the need for a counterattack was evident.
The initial Chilean reaction was the mobilization of the fleet for an inmediate counteroffensive towards the Argentines. This was the beginning of the battle of the Strait of Magellan.

The Argentinian fleet was divided in two groups: one at the Beagle and another one at the entry of the Strait of Magellan. The Chilean Military command decided that the best strategy would be to launch a surprise attack towards the Magellan group, since the argentinian would probably deem the Beagle group as the most likely target. Once the target was determined, the battle began.

The battle took place mostly in the area north of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, in the early hours of December 13th, when the chilean ships and airplanes began their attack against the argentinian sea fleet. Unfortunately for the chileans, luck was not on their side that day. First, the need to get closer to the argentinian positions and some hesitation on the behalf of the chilean naval commander of the attack allowed the argentinians to discover the chilean intentions several minutes earlier, thus eliminating the element of surprise. The second problem the chileans ran into was the presence of the Aircraft Carrier 25 de Mayo, which they thought was at the Beagle.

All in all, the chileans did their best to expel the argentinian sea fleet from the Magellan. The battle itself was an incredible expectacule, as the dog fights between the argentinian and chilean planes turned the sky into a canvas in which the bright colors of the rising sun and the aerial explosions
provided an extraordinary sight to the public, which was of course preoccupied by the attacks on their ships. The initial wave of chilean attacks would eventually sink the destroyer ARA Segui and the frigate ARA Drummond, while the ARA Hercules and ARA Piedra Buena were hit by the chilean projectiles and received some damage. What followed was a massive battle on the air and on the sea, in which the planes and the naval artillery proved to be as devastating as they had been in the world wars.

The highlights of the battle included the performance of the Argentine Heavy cruiser ARA General Belgrano, which proved to be quite a threat to the enemy, thanks to it's 152 mm guns, which were able to sunk two chilean frigates before being forced to retreat to the Atlantic. The Belgrano had been hit twice by the chileans, only receiving minimal damage, thanks to some incredibly good luck.

At the end, the chileans were able to claim a phyrric victory over the argentinian Sea Fleet, which was temporarily forced out of the Strait, but at the cost of 6 chilean ships to 3 argentinian vessels, and 23 planes to 14. In the end, the victory would be shortlived as well, as the 25 de Mayo lead the fleet into the strait on December 16th, despite some minor damage. The chileans on the other hand were forced to retreat to Punta Arenas, where 4,500 soldiers were waiting for the argentinian army to come.

Tierra del Fuego.

As the skies and waters of the Magellan turned red, in the land the war was being fought just as hard and just as viciously.

The argentinian offensives towards Punta Arenas and Porvenir were stalled 20 miles from the border, thanks to the organized chilean resistance from the 15,000 men in the Teatro de Operaciones Austral (Southern Theather of Operations), under General Nido Floody.
Meanwhile, the battle over Puerto Natales proved to be just as thought, as the chilean defenders were expecting the argentinians in defensive positions and fought bravely for days with orders of not surrendering until reinforcements arrived. Yet the reinforcements did not arrive and Puerto Natales fell to the Argentinian soldiers of the I Armoured Cavalry Brigade ( the Regimiento Tiradores Blindados N 1, to be more precise).

Although the fall of Puerto Natales did much to improve argentine morale and did a lot by cutting the chilean supply lines to their southern forces, the fact was that the lines at Tierra del Fuego were stalled and only a radical change of tactics would end that situation. Said change came on December 19th, when Lt Colonel Oscar Vargas, commander of the 5,000 men at Tierra del Fuego, decided to follow the instructions given to him before the war and occupy the city of Rio Grande, the biggest city in the Argentinian half of Tierra del Fuego.

Vargas knew that the element of surprise was everything if the operation was to succeed, and with that in mind, he ordered his men to attack in the early hours of December 19th, launching a three prongued assault towards the argentine positions.

Once the chileans attacked, there was little to stop them. Most of the argentine planes were undertaking special missions against Puerto Arenas and Puerto Williams, and so there was a gap that Lt Col. Vargas was lucky enough to find and take advantage of. The argentinian soldiers were forced to retreat over 40 miles by December 21st, thanks to the chilean tenacity and strenght, but by December 22nd air superiority was on the argentinian side again.
The chilean offensive was thrown back between December 22 and December 23, causing some 314 casualties on the argentinian side and 463 chilean losses, not mentioning the material losses. Nevertheless, Col. Vargas surprise offensive did much to convince the chilean public that the war had not been decided yet and that Chile had to fight to the bitter end in order to win.
The situation on the Southern Front would finally turn on December 28th, but not before some surprises in the Christmas of 1978.

To be continued...

[maverick]

The Summer War

Following the moderate success of Operation Soberania in the Southern Front, the Argentinean army began the second phase of the war, that is, a general war along the Argentine-Chilean border, with the Army crossing the Andes at four different points, with the main offensives aimed towards Santiago in the Center and Puerto Montt in the south.

Of course, a massive armored thrust towards Santiago or Conception was completely out of the question, due to the nature of the Andes, which would ensure that the campaign turned into a messy, bloody and terrible affair. Nevertheless, the operation began on December 20th, when the argentine aviation launched several raids on the Chilean facilities in the centre of the country, heavily damaging their military capabilities but hardly making the campaign a walk through the park.

General Enrique Morel and his 2nd Army Division proved to be tough nuts to crack for the Argentine army, but despite the difficulties brought by the terrain and the strong Chilean resistance, the Argentine offensive continued through the end of December, to finally run out of steam by January 2nd, with heavy casualties on both sides.

By January 3rd, the situation was turning desperate for both sides. Argentina was forced to halt most operations due to the high expenditure of ammunition and fuel, which had to be transported through the Andes or by sea.
Casualties on the other side were amounting to 560 for the Southern front, in which Puerto Arenas and Porvenir recently fell, and over 1,802 for the Andes campaign, which was being grinded to a halt due to the resistance and sabotage of the Chilean army, not only the fierce 2nd Army Division defending Santiago and central Chile, but also from the Cuerpo militar de trabajo in the Puheyue pass and the Coyhaique area, whose infiltration and sabotage tactics forced the Argentinean military to halt just miles from Puerto Montt.

The Chileans were naturally in a worse position. Half of their Sea Fleet had been sank at the Magallanes, a considerable amount of the Air Force had been destroyed early in the war by the more superior Argentine aviation and now the enemy was moving on the capital itself, which was also hit by Argentine Daggers from time to time. Fortunately, the soldiers were turning into lions with the nation in danger. Also, the Andes was by itself a formidable opponent for any foreign army, and with one of the most able armies in the continent using the biggest mountain range in the world as a defensive line, any foreign army was sure to go through hell just to see the other side of it.

Crossroads

Argentine artillery and soldiers began to pound Port Montt on January 5th, thus beginning on of the bloodiest battles of the war, after the battles being fought at the Andes, naturally,

But meanwhile, the world was slowly realizing the true nature of the conflict, as both sides grew more desperate and bloodier. Two of the bloodiest regimes of the continent were fighting each other, of course that nothing good could came out of that.

On December 6th, the United Nations condemned the war, as well as the war crimes committed by both sides, particularly the Argentine Military. Following that, an arms embargo was authorized against both nations, once again, particularly against Argentina, which was seen by many as the aggressor in the war. As one may imagine, not everyone agreed with the decision of the UN, countries like Peru, Bolivia and the Soviet Union, which continued to cultivate strong political and commercial relations. The Soviet Union was already beginning to depend on Argentina’s exports, and soon Argentina would start to depend on the Soviets to acquire new military technology, something that the French and the Americans would surely not like.

Apart from the condemnations, embargos and breaking of diplomatic and commercial relations, the only significant development of early January came in the form of the deployment of two nuclear submarines and the HMS Glasgow to Stanley, in the Falklands.

James Callaghan and most international observers could hardly believe that Argentina would go to war over three petty islands in the south Atlantic, but now he didn’t thought British possessions in the Atlantic to be safe and henceforth ordered a small contingent to be sent, mainly to remain observatory of the situation and prevent any escalation.

Needless to say, Callaghan’s decision would for the moment not be as important as the occurrence of the morning of January 8th, when the fate of Chile and the war was decided.

To be Continued...

[Fearless Leader]

Great TL maverick!

The detail is really appreciated! I'm looking forward to the next (and final?) phase of the war.

Keep it up!

[joea64]

Uh, I thought it was Pope Paul VI who mediated that dispute between Argentina and Chile?

-Joe-

[Civilizer]

I'm from Chile, and I think it's awesome that you are writing a South American Alternate History, which are pretty rare.... I think it was first the queen, then the pope, or something like that.... There was actually a movie made here last year about the "almost-war", about some Chilean soldiers sent to Patagonia, who had a skirmish with some Argentines despite there being no war. It was called "Mi Mejor Enemigo," because they ended up playing a soccer game with the Argentines, even when there was still a high risk of war. The public knew there was a crisis, but they didn't know how serious it really was.

[maverick]

Indeed.

Everybody knew. The army was being mobilized, Uruguay was receiving tons of young argentines, the pope got involved, a big mess.

Actually, the argentinian attack almost happened on December 21st, but it could have happened on any time that month.

[Thande]

Well, whether the Argentines win or lose, there probably isn't going to be a Falklands War...if they lose they'll be in no position to do it and if they win, the junta won't need a reason to unite the people behind it.

Which is probably a bad thing for the RN and Britain in the long run.

(Not to sound introverted or anything... )

[maverick]

January 8th

During the course of the war, there were many moments that could now be seen as turning points in the conflict, especially considering the willingness of the United States and the United Nations to intervene given the right time, and the strong resistance from the Chilean army, among other reasons that may lead some to believe that the war could have gone the other way, and certainly the “January 8th Incident” is one of the favorite sources of speculation of historians and analysts.

Tensions between Chile, Peru and Bolivia have existed since the War of the Pacific a hundred years before the Beagle war, in which Chile took the strategic regions of Arica and Atacama from Peru and Bolivia, depriving the later nation from access to the Sea.

Said tensions were of course reaching a boiling point during the Beagle crisis.

Both Peru and Bolivia had agreed to remain neutral in early 1978, but as the summer neared, both nations found themselves increasingly at odds with Chile and more eager to join Argentina in any conflict that may lead to the return of the lost land back to their rightful owners.

The moment in which the powder keg finally exploded was of course January 8th, in which a Military warplane of the Peruvian Aviation was shot down over Chilean air space, just meters south of the border. Similar incidents were not uncommon in late 1978 and early 1979, with a particularly interesting story in which a Peruvian spy plane seen by the Chileans exited Chilean air space only to enter the skies of Bolivia.

Of course, when War was declared in the early morning of January 9th, it was a dual declaration of war from Bolivia and Peru, as there was Bolivian personal in said plane.

The Tripartite war

Following the declaration of war, the Military High commands of Argentina, Peru and Bolivia began to meet to discuss the strategy of the war. Of course, similar meetings had taken place before the Declaration of war and even before the war even started on December 11th.

Before too long Bolivian, Peruvian and Argentinean warplanes were patrolling the skies of northern Chile in joint operations, while the Military commands were drawing plans for operations against Chile.

The first attacks began on January 10th. Needless to say, in crisis like this, the armies are mobilized and placed along the borders long before ultimatums and declarations of war are actually issued.

The week between January 10th and January 17th saw the beginning of a new Argentine offensive against Santiago, combined with feints in the north and air raids against the capital. Nevertheless, the battle in the ground continued to be stalemated a bloody and costly stalemate.

Meanwhile, the armies of the North began their march through Atacama. The first attacks were Peruvian offensives against Arica, which was surprisingly well defended by the small Chilean contingent, with a defense strong enough to repel the Peruvian assaults of January 10th and January 14th, while the Chilean torpedoes and rockets at the harbor defended the port from the Peruvian squadron, which lost 2 ships that day and simply limited it’s action to blockade the city, from a safe distance, of course.
Bolivia put the least effort in the war, mostly because they had their own problems controlling the population and having to cross an enormous salty desert defended by well placed bunkers and command centers.

General Julio Canessa’s defenses are barely enough to keep the Tripartite forces from advancing on Chilean soil, though, and despite the extremely well placed bunkers and defense lines, at Atacama and Arica, the Chileans know that they can’t last forever, and their last hope is not in the barracks at the Andes or the command centers at Santiago, but at Washington, where the Carter Administration is trying to figure a way to stop the war altogether.


To be continued...

[maverick]

The World divided

Tensions in Washington, New York and Moscow were high in the winter of 1979, which was of course summer in South America, where the most important war of the continent in a century was being fought.

Jimmy Carter and the Ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, were pushing for more sanctions against Argentina and her allies, while the Soviet ambassador spent those days denouncing American imperialism and intervention in South America.
Anyone paying attention those days could easily tell how Soviet-Argentine relations had improved thanks to the War and the Human rights crusade of Jimmy Carter, that lead to one of the most fiercely anti-communist regimes on Earth to sign commercial and military cooperation treaties.

The duel over South America began to spread across the globe, with America’s allies denouncing Argentina and with the Soviet allies denouncing America and Chile. China notably sided with the United States, while countries like France somewhat abstained, since it was the French and the Israelis who supplies Argentina with some of her weapons, especially the Mirages, or Daggers.

The US-Soviet conflict eventually escalated to the point in which Carter and Brezhnev started to criticize each other themselves, a point which is believed by many to be the beginning of the end of Détente.

The possibility of a Third World War was of course incredibly low, but the crisis had caused such damage to US-Soviet relations, that following President Carter’s threat to blockade Argentina, he ordered a grain embargo against the USSR, claiming that the Brezhnev regime was the biggest sponsor of tyranny in the world.
One might find it hard to believe that a border dispute over three insignificant islands in the South Atlantic had escalated to a point in which the United States and the Soviet Union were exchanging insults and injuries at New York or to the end of Détente, but as an old saying goes “For the want of a nail the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, for the want of a battle the Kingdom was lost…all for the want of a nail.”
And just as for the want of a nail the Kingdom was lost, for the want of peace Détente was lost, and for some, the Cold war was lost.

While Carter and his cabinet were meeting at Washington to discuss the new policy towards South America and the Soviet Union, at Moscow the health of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev reached its last straw, and the tension of running an inefficient country added to the international crisis with Carter and the Grain Embargo finally forced his heart to a halt, ending his life on January 18th of 1979.

The war continued

By January 20th, Argentinean forces were finally within 12 Km. from Santiago, after weeks of fierce fighting against the Chilean military. In the North, Peruvian forces were finally taking Arica, despite having had to fight the Chileans street for street, while the Bolivians were finding that crossing a desert having to look out for Chilean bunkers and mines was not an easy task.

The aerial raids against Santiago and Valparaiso had ceased to be dogfights and argentine casualties began to drop as February neared. Initial casualties in the raids over Santiago were somewhere in the 20 or 25%, while now it barely neared the 11%, thanks to the elimination of the Chilean aviation and defenses.

The situation on the land was a different issue however. As the argentine soldiers approached the Capital, Chilean resistance increased, although in some isolated cases they just laid down their weapons and surrendered, after spending days fighting without being fed or re-supplied.

Meanwhile, the Argentinean military was increasingly more dependant on the Soviet Union, with General Secretary Yuri Andropov even going as far as praising the Argentine military for their victory over Chile.

Things like that are the ones that lead to the Carter and UN embargoes, which were of course ignored by the USSR and several other countries.

But they were not ignored by the Argentinean government. The economy was suffering from the war effort and the population was growing tired of the never-ending war against Chile and the high casualties of the Central front, where the sons, brothers and fathers of thousands of people were being killed every day.

The war had to end or else there would be neither spoils nor a victor to take them, so President Videla and General Viola ordered a final offensive against Santiago to take place once and for all. The war was about to end one way or the other.

To be continued...

[maverick]

Collapse and Death

On January 23rd Argentinean forces were finally fighting inch for inch in Santiago itself, where the last remains of organized resistance from the Chilean army was being put against the foreign invader armies. But before we deal with the final moments of the war, let’s do a little recap of the Central front.

After the initial invasion of the Beagle islands and Tierra del Fuego, the Argentinean army launched a general invasion of the Chilean Patagonia at four different points. Just hours after the fall of Port Montt the 1st Army Corp launched an invasion from Mendoza through the Andes, with the intention of capturing Santiago. Thus the Central Theater of Operations was opened on December 20th.

The Operation against Santiago came in the form of a three pronged assault assisted by the Argentine aviation, which had the aerial superiority at the time thanks to the early strikes and raids against the Chilean facilities.
The X Infantry Brigade crossed the Paso de la Cumbre (La Cumbre pass), advancing towards Santiago from the North, while the more numerous I Armored Cavalry Brigade launched a two pronged attack through the Maipo and Porton de los Piuquenes passes (Paso de Maipo and Porton de los Piuquenes), occupying Rancagua to keep their left flank safe, and advancing towards Santiago from the South, being stopped by the Chileans at San Bernardo.

General Enrique Morel and his 2nd Army Division fought incredibly hard and fiercely in the summer of 1978-1979, being able to stall the Argentinean advance despite being outnumbered in several occasions, and at some times even being able to throw the invader army back and launching counteroffensives, such as the one that briefly retook San Bernardo on January 12th after its second fall on January 10th.

But by the time of the new offensive the Chileans had lost most of their Air Force and industrial capability, not to mention that war had to be fought throughout the country, although most of the army was defending Santiago.
The first assaults of January 22nd did much to decimate the outer perimeter of defenses around Santiago, while doing a terrible damage to Chilean morale. The assaults were accompanied by artillery fire and air raids against the city and Valparaiso, where General Pinochet had his Headquarters and provisional government set up, not to mention a plane ready to take off at any given moment.

One last desperate Chilean counterattack came in the late hours of January 23rd, the same day the UN authorized stronger Sanctions against Argentina, Peru and Bolivia, and the same day in which Peruvian and Bolivian troops entered Calama.
But the attack lead by the Chilean infantry with the support of some tanks was hardly able to slow down the Argentinean advance for more than a day.

Finally, on January 25th, almost 46 days after the beginning of hostilities, news came from Chile: Santiago had fallen.
Organized resistance ceased in the early hours of that day, today remembered in Chile as one of mourning and tragedy, while in Argentina is a celebration for those who remember the war fondly.
The news of the fall of Santiago was first received by the Presidents and Military commanders in Buenos Aires and Valparaiso.
While bottles of Champagne were being opened in Buenos Aires, General Pinochet took his bags, his family and boarded a plane off to Mexico, from where he would later escape to Spain. Chilean will and fighting power was broken, the war was over.

General Morel surrendered his men on January 27th, while General Joaquin Ramirez, chief of Staff of the Armed forces, signed the instrument of surrender on January 29th, as provisional President of the Republic.

To be Continued...

[maverick]

Postbellum

Early February was used by the involved parties in the war as a period of reorganization and re-evaluation of strategy.
Having emerged victorious in the war, the tripartite alliance of Argentina, Peru and Bolivia now faced the consequences of the war and had to emerge victorious in peace time. The economies and resources of the three countries were greatly affected by the war, as would be seen in the months following the end of the conflict, but for the moment the Military Governments of the victors were able to use the recent war as a show of the triumph of the Government, rallying the people behind a patriotic crusade and managing to keep the regimes alive for a little longer.

Chile, on the other hand, was ruined. Most of the Military had been defeated, captured and or killed, the Government had collapsed, resources had been drained to a limit and the population now lived in a broken down war-torn country.
General Joaquin Rodriguez formed a provisional government, with a coalition of Democrats and Military leaders with the intention of eventually calling elections. He knew that he could not last forever in power, especially due to the poor image the Chileans got in the Post Beagle war period.

Finally, when March came, delegates and representatives from the four nations met at San Carlos de Bariloche, in Mendoza, Argentina. Negotiations lasted for three weeks, until April 11th, when the Treaty of San Carlos de Bariloche was signed. The victorious nations agreed by this treaty to recognize the Chilean nation and the provisional government, as long as it signed the treaty, or else military operations against Chile would ensue and military occupation would continue.

No Economic reparations were demanded, since everyone knew that Chile was ruined and that the Argentine Aviation had destroyed much of the nation’s industrial capabilities. Thus most of the clauses of the treaty were about Territorial exchanges and similar issues.

In the South, the islands of the Beagle channel were granted to Argentina, naturally. But as an addition to the islands, Argentina received the islands in the South Atlantic, including the ones occupied early in the war (Deceyt, Freycinet, Hershcel, Wallaston and Hornos), Isla Navarino, Dawson and the Chilean half of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, thus placing the entire island under Argentinean sovereignty.
Basically, Argentina obtained everything south and west of the Strait of Magellan. Bigger territorial acquisitions were seen by the Argentinean government as impractical, due to economic and social motives, especially the cost of occupying, annexing and running the Chilean Patagonia, not to mention the issue of the Chilean civilians living in those areas.

Other clauses included the demilitarization of several Mountain passes, on the Chilean side, of course; the reduction of the Chilean Air Force, and the demilitarization of the Magellan strait, (for the Chileans). Prisoners of war would be exchanged within six months, while the Chileans citizens living in territory now belonging to Argentina would be allowed to leave, with the traveling costs being paid by the Argentinean government.

The clauses of the treaty regarding Chile, Peru and Bolivia were a bit shorter, with Chile acknowledging the return of the provinces taken in 1879 back Peru and Bolivia. Basically the northern border returned to 1879, with Bolivia finally regaining an access to the sea, something that would allow the re-localization of some of the Chilean ships captured by the Argentineans, not to mention some of the British ships on sale that Fall of 1979.

Effects of War and Peace

The world came back to normality after the Beagle war, or at least so it seemed. The Chilean Government was struggling to rebuild the nation, the economy and re-establishing Democracy, something with which neither of the victorious countries of the War was willing to help.

The UN was no longer divided between those who demanded sanctions against the aggressor countries and those who advocated neutrality, although Ambassador Young continued to denounce the “Triple Alliance” and the Soviet Union, which was at that time under Yuri Andropov and looking forwards to building a stronger relation with Argentina, a process that had begun in the early years of the Carter administration and that was furthered by Carter’s crusade for Human Rights and the Beagle war.

The Carter administration was in the aftermath of the war utterly humiliated, but with more important things to think about. Of course, the President had tried to stop a war in his own backyard in which three Military dictatorships fought a fourth violating human rights on a massive scale, and he was not only unable to stop it, but he was actually ridiculed by the Soviet Union and Argentina.
Nevertheless, there were more important thinks to do and bigger fish to catch. The United States government of course denounced the Treaty of San Carlos de Bariloche and continued to pressure everyone into embargoing Argentina, Peru and Bolivia, only with small success, but there was also the issues of the Energy crisis, the Economy, the Soviet sale of arms to the communist Government fighting a civil war in Afghanistan and of course, the Iranian Revolution.



To be Continued...

[Fearless Leader]

I gotta say maverick, this is a great TL. You don't see too many South American oriented TL's around these parts and you pull this one off with pinache!

Anyhow I look forward to how the resolution of the Beagle War affects the latter half of the Cold War. Right now it looks like Carter's got one more reason to go, hello Mr. Reagan! Perhaps Ronnie Raygun takes a more aggressive approach to the South American problem?

It'll also be interesting how the increased Soviet intervention in South America affects things. Do the communist movements on the continent get a much needed boost?

I'm looking forward to the next installment!

[stevep]

Originally Posted by Fearless Leader

I gotta say maverick, this is a great TL. You don't see too many South American oriented TL's around these parts and you pull this one off with pinache!

Anyhow I look forward to how the resolution of the Beagle War affects the latter half of the Cold War. Right now it looks like Carter's got one more reason to go, hello Mr. Reagan! Perhaps Ronnie Raygun takes a more aggressive approach to the South American problem?

It'll also be interesting how the increased Soviet intervention in South America affects things. Do the communist movements on the continent get a much needed boost?

I'm looking forward to the next installment!

FL

I'm a bit surprised that the US didn't step in to prevent a total Chilean defeat give its traditional determination to control events in the region.

The defacto-relationship between the Triple alliance and Russia is probably pretty fragile, unless something like a Reagan US takes a hard line against them for humiliating it. After all they are right wing dictatorships, not particularly friendly to communism. Historically they had close links, economic and military, with the US. Going to take a lot to make them reverse that position. [Just possibly a very hostile US which feels humiliated by its inability to stop the war might go OTT in terms of hostility and drives them into an uneasy relation with the Soviets. Could end up with the very odd position of the US supporting liberal/radical opponents of right wing military dictatorships but suspect that is unlikely].

The other question is how much in terms of blood and wealth Argentina has spent compared to the affect on their moral and self image? I.e. will this butterfly or make more likely a bid for the Falklands. If so they will probably come a cropper as they will have to watch their backs for a vengeful Chile while the US is more likely to take direct action having been ignored before. Plus even the Thatcher government is likely to pay more attention to the security of the islands after a recent war there.


Anyway, I agree with FL. A very interesting TL maverick and in an time/place normally overlooked. Wondering how things will go from here.

Steve

[maverick]

Well, the Triple Alliance doesn't have a close relation with the USSR, Argentina does.

You see, the Military Junta spent much of 1976 and 1977 exterminating communist guerrillas, but when Jimmy Carter came with his Human rights crusade, that drove Argentina closer to the USSR, especially in the late 70s and early 80s. Now the war accelerates the process of approach between Argentina and the USSR.

Of course, Jimmy Carter and Andrew Young pushed for every economic sanction they could, including arms and grain embargoes against Argentina and the USSR. I thought about Carter blockading Argentina and the Soviets trying to pass the blockade, but I didn't thought Carter would have done something like that, especially three years after Vietnam.

And of course, needless to say, the war had a huge economic and military cost to Argentina, as will be seen in my next update (probably tomorrow)

[maverick]

Fall from Grace

Post-war South America was never going to return to Status Quo Ante Bellum. That was something very clear to everyone back in 1979, from Jimmy Carter and Yuri Andropov to Jorge Rafael Videla and Augusto Pinochet, who was at the time enjoying the money from his Swiss account at the sunny Riviera.

For once, the war had brought too unlikely allies closer together: Argentina and the USSR. Despite their differences, both governments had been denounced by the Carter Administration and were seen as threats to world peace by Washington.
Although the de facto alliance between Buenos Aires and Moscow started with commercial and technical aid, it quickly grew into a mutual dependence between the two nations. Russia wanted grain, cereal and livestock, Argentina needed a trading partner and Military assistance.
Thus the Argentinean Army began replacing some of the tanks used in the Beagle war with Soviet models, while the Air Force began to acquire the most modern jets of the Red Air Force, something that forced Dassault to make even better offers to keep the Argentinean market.
On the other hand, Soviet agents began operating in South America from Buenos Aires, while Argentinean advisors worked closely with the USSR discussing mountain warfare, something that helped the Soviets greatly when they began sending small expeditionary forces to Afghanistan in 1981 and 1984, as well as anti-guerrilla tactics, which benefited the Soviet allies in Nicaragua, who would later have to fight anti-communist revolutionaries in the jungles of central America.

Meanwhile, both Argentina and Chile were struggling to return to normalcy. Chile had to be rebuilt economically, socially and politically, and the coalition government of liberals, Democrats, the Church and the Military was hardly the better force to bring Chile together, so the need to return to Democracy became apparent to the Military Government. Thus were the elections of September of 1979 held.
At least a dozen candidates ran for the office of President, while the elections for the new Congress were hardly more ordinate. At the end, it was the centre-left coalition of Christian Democrats and socialists that won the elections, with Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin, who would later be credited with the reconstruction of Chile and the reconciliation of its people.

Matters in Argentina were different. Having emerged victorious in a bloody war and taking strategic positions in the South Atlantic gave a great boost to the Military Junta and President Videla, but the Economy entered a recession after the conflict, and the costs of the war and the post-war occupation did things go incredibly wrong. Despite the wide support enjoyed during the war and in the immediate aftermath of the conflict, then issues like the recession, unemployment, the return of soldiers from occupational duty, abuses on human rights, the disappearance of soldiers and civilians during the war and the secrets being kept about the nature of several soldier’s deaths eventually piled up and protests and manifestations opposing the government began to take place in Buenos Aires and several cities of the Republic, including Santa Fe, Cordoba, Rosario and Corrientes. Some of the protests were followed by strikes during the winter of 1979, and by the early spring, the situation was spiraling out of the government’s hands.

The most massive rallies took place in October of 1979, with the biggest one taking place on October 17, Dia de la Lealtad, when the workers of Argentina celebrate the release of General Peron from Prison and his return to politics in 1945. It was said at the time that over a million people gathered at Buenos Aires in that warm night of 1979, although historians now put that number around the 250,000. No matter the number, General Videla was tired of the anti-government protests and thus He handed his resignation letter on October 18th, leaving the country on November 10th, while General Roberto Eduardo Viola became interim president, while still holding the position of head of the Armed Forces.

Viola’s Government was characterized by the promises of Economic recovery and a return of Democracy, although only massive arrests followed his first speech as President of the Nation on October 20th. The Military Junta grew more desperate in the spring of 1979, and there were even some talks in the Military to rally the population behind them once more with a new war, possibly over the Falkland Islands.
Plans for such an operation were draw in early November, but by then it was too late. There was no way in which the Government could save itself, and thus General Viola resigned on November 23, leaving Admiral Emilio Massera in charge of the Government. Massera wasted no time in announcing that elections would be held in the August of 1980, and that martial law would by January 1st of that year.

To be continued...

[maverick]

1980

The Fourth year of the Carter administration started with a diplomatic visit to China, with the intention of strengthening Sino-American relations and isolate the Soviet Union, a move that Andropov tried to counter by trying to establish closer ties to India and Argentina, although both nations were reluctant to allow a great number of Soviet Military Advisors to be stationed within their borders.
Following that visit the President and Secretary of State Vance visited the US Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to meet with the recently evacuated personal from the Embassy at Tehran, which had been surrounded by Islamic militants, forcing an evacuation of the facilities.

Ever since the debacle over the Beagle war between Russia and America, President Carter had decided not to let the United States to be humiliated again and thus embarked on a more aggressive foreign policy, denouncing the Soviet Union occupation of Eastern Europe and their sale of arms to the Communist regime of Afghanistan, condemning the Argentinean and Peruvian military dictatorships, refusing to allow the deposed Shah of Iran to receive medical treatment in the United States and several embargoes against nations such as the USSR, Argentina, Peru, Burma, etc.

The Grain embargo and the reinstitution of the draft for young males hardly make Carter more popular, although they did gave him a more hawkish image, while his criticisms to traditional satellites like South Africa and Paraguay tended to somewhat isolate the United States while giving Carter more credibility to the American People.

Despite his actions, the biggest in the summer of 1980 wasn’t President Carter’s visit to China or the new wave of violence in Ulster, but the Moscow Olympic Games, which took place between July 19 and August 3.
There were few families in America or Russia not following the events of the Games with great expectation.
American and Soviet rivalry dominated most of the events, and great celebrations or outrage followed each nation’s victories and defeats.

But the highlight of the Event was not the East-west rivalries nor the games themselves, but the show given by the American athletes that used the opportunity of being watched by millions around the world and denouncing the USSR for their actions in Eastern Europe, Latin America and even their own treatment of their citizens, with some even calling the USSR a “Gestapo State” and that much of the people living in the so-called worker’s paradise were actually living in a ghetto.

Needless to say, the Muscovite government was not too fond of foreigners insulting them in their own capital, and thus Premier Andropov ordered the American team to be expelled. The expulsion of the American team was followed by the exits of the German, British, Canadian and Japanese teams, who would then denounce Andropov’s decision. Incredibly enough, the most symbolic gesture came from the Soviet Team, which refused to continue to participate the following day of the American team’s expulsion: July 28th.

President Carter surely didn’t come last in his condemnation of the Soviet Regime, Yuri Andropov and communism in general. He even went as far as asking for an apology to Premier Andropov, saying on July 30th: “Let our teams compete in a fair arena, if you dare to, Mr. Andropov”.
The Soviet team would eventually win over 180 medals, but that hardly mattered considering the events that preceded August 3rd. One of the most dramatic moments of the Cold war had ended and President Carter’s popularity grew fantastically, much to the surprise of his opponent, the charismatic Ronald Reagan.

But the Presidential elections of the United States were not the only ones taking place in the year of 1980. It was also an electoral year for Argentina, a nation that had ceased to be a democracy 4 years ago.