PC: Argentina invades Chile post-Falklands?

hey, all. i want to explore a possibility for a different TL i'm working. assuming that Argentina successfully captures the Falklands through whatever means you deem necessary, could they also credibly invade Chile, possibly even conquering and annexing it? as i understand it, the junta had planned to do this if they successfully took the Falklands IOTL

also, after Chile, what does everyone think would be the next move for Argentina?
 

trurle

Banned
Chile had make some aggressive moves during Falklands war, housing British aircraft. If Chilean leadership went a bit more to insane side, the mutual declaration of war between Chile and Argentine was possible. Also, even if Argentinians were able to repel an initial British naval onslaught on Falklands, it does not mean a end of the war with British.

As for perspectives to conquer a Chile..purely impossible. Logistics on mountain roads under British bombs is not a possible deed.
Also, Chilean military was small, but at mountain passes the Argentinians will be unable to engage it with the superior forces, resulting in rapid onset of stalemate on rugged northern border.
On the southern flank, Argentine can realistically occupy everything south from Puerto Natales, but i doubt it can hold it for long under British/Chilean pressure. Falklands war has shown the morale and motivation level of both army and civilians was quite low.
 
It depends a lot on how does Argentina win against Britain, which in itself is highly unlikely.

It's more likely to have either an Argentina vs. Chile without Falklands; or an escalation of Falklands with an incident sparking a second front against Argentina, while Peru attacks Chile from the north (there were reportedly plans for that).

In the first case, Argentina may well win a limited conflict and a few kilometers of southern territories. The second case would be a regional clusterf*ck that will require US intervention to sort, and massive butterflies for the world and the Cold War.
 
Were they ever bat-shit crazy enough to seriously consider invading and conquering Chile proper? I had always understood them to be merely interested in settling their Beagle conflict by annexing the Chilean-controlled islands that they claimed. IIRC they actually considered trying it a couple of years before they invaded the Falkland Islands but decided against it for some reason.
 
Am I the only one who immediately visualised locking the Argentinian junta and Pinochet in the same room, and letting them hack each other to pieces?
 
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