Staying out of a world war is a good way to avoid domestic suffering and even make a little money because both sides will be buying whatever you are selling. What happens after the war when the winning side thinks you a shirker. Time to start a charm offensive. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp celebrates a Crusade for world peace organized by Peronist Argentina through the schools. There have been stamps like this from east and west and north and south for decades. Look at the iconography of this one. You can almost understand American feelings that there was something off about the Argentines.
Todays stamp is issue A209, a 20 Centavo stamp issued by Argentina in 1947. It was a two stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. There is an imperforate version that is worth $10.
Juan Peron was elected President of Argentina defeating a political party called the radical civic union. The radical civic union were nicknamed the oxi-morons of should have been. He faced a severe foreign policy challenge. The USA was angry at Argentina for sitting out the war. How to punish Argentina was the question as there were large American investments in Argentina and the country bought a lot of the USA’s manufactured good exports. The Americans decided on a three prong strategy against Argentina. The would form a security pact with the rest of Latin America that excluded Argentina. They excluded Argentina from the international debt market. Argentine agricultural products were also excluded from the Marshal aid plan, which was how Europe was paying for the food they were importing.
What was Peron to do? His Foreign Minister Juan Bramulgia favored giving in to American domination. Evita Peron had earlier asked for and was refused Bramulgia’s legal help earlier when Peron had been arrested. Now with him preaching subservience, Evita got her revenge and convinced Peron to fire him. To replace the agricultural exports lost, Peron opened relations and trade with the USSR. The closed foreign financial markets proved a boon. Peron was able to sell bonds on the domestic market that kept the money in the country.
This still left Peron isolated. He decided on a charm offensive. He funded the hosting of international sports competitions in Argentina. Where he found athletic talent, they were funded so they be at their best on the international stage. This included the race car driver Juan Manuel Fangio who won 5 world championships, and boxer Jose Atlio Gatica. Both paid a price later. Gatica was arrested and forced to retire after dedicating a victory to Peron after he was overthrown. Fangio was kidnapped by Castro in Cuba in 1957.
He then decided on a charm offensive in Europe. Evita would go on an elaborate European tour that emphasized her glamour. Time magazine in the USA dubbed it the Rainbow Tour. The USA pressured Europe not to receive her and when that was only partially successful, the USA arraigned some dirty tricks for her in Switzerland. While waving to friendly crowds from her car, suddenly the windshield was broken by thrown rocks. Later while meeting with the Swiss Foreign Minister three tomatoes came her way. They connected more with the Foreign Minister, but Evita was humiliated and flew home early. At least the time in Paris enhanced her sense of style.
Peron was not completely able to break out of American isolation but neither was the USA able to starve off the Argentine economy which grew by leaps and bounds in this period. Sometimes kicking the can is all that can be achieved.
Well my drink is empty and I probably should toast the fresh faced kids for peace on the stamps. I won’t, kids like this are being used as tools because they cannot be argued with. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.