Brazil attacks Argentina in World War 2

Alan

I was reading the Wikipedia article on Argentina during World War 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina_during_World_War_II
The article contains this quote :

"At this point, the United States was considering supporting Brazil in an attack against Argentina, rather than attacking Argentina themselves. The Brazilian ambassador in Washington pointed out that Buenos Aires could be completely destroyed by the Brazilian air force. This would have allowed Argentina to be dominated without the open intervention of the United States, who would support Brazil by providing ships and bombs.[33]"

This was apparently in response to exasperation at Argentina's neutrality. Does anybody know anything about this or how close it actually came to happening?
 
Gukpard

Gukpard

Alan said:
I was reading the Wikipedia article on Argentina during World War 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina_during_World_War_II
The article contains this quote :

"At this point, the United States was considering supporting Brazil in an attack against Argentina, rather than attacking Argentina themselves. The Brazilian ambassador in Washington pointed out that Buenos Aires could be completely destroyed by the Brazilian air force. This would have allowed Argentina to be dominated without the open intervention of the United States, who would support Brazil by providing ships and bombs.[33]"

This was apparently in response to exasperation at Argentina's neutrality. Does anybody know anything about this or how close it actually came to happening?
Click to expand...

@Guilherme Loureiro can give a more assertive opinion than mine.

Well, this seems to be more of a demonstration of power by the Brazilian government than a real threat. There is no gain for going to war with Argentina, there would be a huge economic drain and would push Argentina into the axis.
 

Lee-Sensei

Alan said:
I was reading the Wikipedia article on Argentina during World War 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina_during_World_War_II
The article contains this quote :

"At this point, the United States was considering supporting Brazil in an attack against Argentina, rather than attacking Argentina themselves. The Brazilian ambassador in Washington pointed out that Buenos Aires could be completely destroyed by the Brazilian air force. This would have allowed Argentina to be dominated without the open intervention of the United States, who would support Brazil by providing ships and bombs.[33]"

This was apparently in response to exasperation at Argentina's neutrality. Does anybody know anything about this or how close it actually came to happening?
Click to expand...
I’m not sure about the Brazilians being able to destroy Buenos Aires easily. That seems like a bit of an exaggeration.
 

Sabre77

Banned
Bombing Buenos Aires to punish the Argentines for being neutral strikes me as a pretty clear example of an own goal. It wouldn’t have significantly benefited the Allies and would have given the Axis a propaganda boon.
 

Guilherme Loureiro

Gukpard said:
Well, this seems to be more of a demonstration of power by the Brazilian government than a real threat. There is no gain for going to war with Argentina, there would be a huge economic drain and would push Argentina into the axis.
Click to expand...

Agreed on all points. That being said, by 1943, there isn't much, if anything at all , the Axis can do to support Argentina. As for how close matters came to war, I'd say not really - I've never heard any mention of this in any diplomatic history I've read(just checked my Ricupero copy, not a word of this), so I'd say this was yet another diplomatic tiff that ended up going nowhere.

EDIT: Just checked the Wikipedia reference to this quote. It's an Argentinian book about Perón. Argentinians tend to attribute higher impact to the WWII US-Brazilian alliance regarding Brazil-Argentina and US-Argentina relations than Brazilians do, so it's not surprising this got a mention on an Argentinian book and got ignored by a Brazilian one. Other books, dedicated to the history of Brazil-Argentina and Brazil-Argentina-US relations might shed some more light on this, but I don't have any of those.
 
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Femto

Femto

Banned
Why would Brazil want to do this? Would they've got some territory? Brazil would be more kin to take Uruguay than to invade Argentina.
 

rfmcdonald

I do not quite get the sense behind an attack on Argentina by Brazil. What would be the point of a not necessary proxy war in South America?
 

Peg Leg Pom

Uruguay would be pissed at been overflown by Brazilian bombers attacking a country that had done nothing to deserve it. All this does is drive the rest of South America to the Axis. Britain is very pissed because Brazil and the US just lost it a source of food it doesn't have to use scarce Dollars to pay for.
 
Femto

Femto

Banned
I believe this is possible but you would need a POD for a more pro-Axis Argentina. Maybe Germany has the upper hand against Britain in the Europe(without Sea mammal of course)by seizing Gibraltar or Suez and the Argentinians feel tempted to launch an earlier Falkland invasion before the US enters the war. And when the US enters, London and Washington make a deal with Brazil to attack the pro-Axis Argentina in exchange for concessions in the La Plata basin. Is this realistic?

Buenos Aires could do this if the general feeling is that the British Empire is ending in that exact moment.
 
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