National Revolution, 1943-46
The previous decade had witnessed various incidents of government repressions, military interventions, rigged elections, economic depression, and oligarchical rule. The situation changed abruptly with the emergence of a new Nationalist military opposition. On the morning of June 4, 1943, an army of some 10,000 marched on the government palace under the command of General Arturo J. Rawson. The military coup came in response to the breakup of the Concordancia and the frustration of major Argentine political and economic interests that felt threatened by Castillo's determination to exclude them from the political arrangements of the next administration.
When the troops approached, President Castillo abandoned the Casa Rosada (Pink House, official presidential palace) and sailed to the nearby port of La Plata. The next day he submitted his resignation to the military commander of Buenos Aires.
The military coup against the Conservative government of Castillo was the work of a secret Nationalist military organization, the Unification Task Force (Grupo Obra de Unificacion — GOU), a group of young colonels that included Juan Domingo Perón. The conspirators were strongly influenced by Italian and German nationalist military organizations, and they perceived the army in a redeeming role. Under this view, they were committed to rule Argentina and achieve national industrial development and social reforms, which they viewed as necessary for national unification and the creation of a strong professional army.
As a result, political power was transferred from the old landed and mercantile aristocracies to the new military bureaucracy. For the first time in the history of Argentina, military men were entrusted with all political and administrative posts under a dictatorship that suspended the Constitution and proclaimed General Rawson president on June 4, 1943. His pro-Allied sympathies forced him to resign three days later, however. Between 1943 and 1944 three ministers of war were appointed to the presidency by the COU. Rawson's successor was General Pedro Pablo Ramirez, who was replaced in 1944 by General Edelmiro J. Farrell, who appointed Peron as his minister of war.
Throughout this initial period of military consolidation, Perón developed his power base as a major leader of the young officers within the GOU. In October 1943 Peron became the head of the newly created Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare, which acquired ministerial status the following month.
From this vantage point, Peron was able to take over the labor organizations under the General Confederation of Labor (Confederacion General de Trabajo — CGT) and to direct and subject it to his personal control. He maintained a commanding position over both the corporate military and the new laboring classes and became the dominant personality in Argentine political life until his death more than three decades later.
Perón's ability to manipulate his following produced an alliance between young officers and new labor leaders who were outside the mainstream of political parties and labor organizations. This coalition was encouraged by the emergence of a new generation of Extreme Nationalists and the increasing unrest and expectations of the new industrial labor force, which was swelled by migrations from the countryside and consequent unemployment at a time of rapid industrialization, capital accumulation, and scant redistribution of the nation's growing wealth.
During the Depression of the 1930s, Argentines began to see Argentina as a victim, a view that many Argentines continue to hold. During World War II, Argentina lost access to imported products because of the war and the Allied embargo imposed on Argentina because of its failure to declare war on the Axis powers until the closing days of the conflict. Largely inefficient industries were developed to replace the loss of imports for the domestic market. Originally designed as a temporary measure during the war, these noncompetitive industries were kept alive in the post-war period through decades of import substitution, high-tariff policies first initiated under Juan Peron's administration.
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