America and Argentina's Dirty War

International New York Times, March 18, 2016

America and Argentina's Dirty War

It is time for the United States to come clean about what it knew and condoned dur-
ing Argentina's time of terror.

A few months after a military junta overthrew President Isabel Peron of Argentina
in 1976, the country's new foreign minister, Adm. Cesar Guzzetti, told Henry
Kissinger, America's secretary of state, that the military was aggressively cracking
down on "the terrorists." Mr. Kissinger responded, "If there are things that have to
be done, you should do them quickly," an apparent warning that a new American
Congress might cut off aid if it thought the Argentine government was engaging in
systemic human rights abuses.

The American ambassador in Buenos Aires soon reported to Washington that the
Argentine government had interpreted Mr. Kissinger's words as a "green light" to
continue its brutal tactics against leftist guerrillas, political dissidents and suspected
socialists.

Just how much the American government knew about Argentina's repressive "Dirty
War," which lasted from 1976 to 1983 -- and the extent to which it condoned the
abuses -- has remained shrouded in secrecy. When President Obama visits Argenti-
na next week during the 40th anniversary of the coup, he should make a pledge that
Washington will more fully reveal its role in a dark chapter of Argentine history.
Military officials abducted thousands of civilians during this period. Hundreds of
babies, stolen from Argentines who were arbitrarily detained, were raised by mili-
tary families.
Human rights groups in Argentina have long sought access to classified American
intelligence and diplomatic records, hoping that they will shed new light on the
abuses and the fate of missing Argentines. The Argentine government itself has for-
mally asked for declassification.

In 2002, Washington partly declassified roughly 4,700 State Department records

from the Dirty War period. Those documents have aided judicial proceedings and
added to a historical record. But much of that record remains obscured.

Declassifying a more extensive set of documents would also bring into sharper fo-
cus a shameful period of American foreign policy, during which Washington con-
doned and in some instances supported the brutal tactics of right-wing governments
in the region. It is time for the American government to do what it still can to help
bring the guilty to justice and give the victims' families some of the answers they
seek.

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

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paper title: International New York Times. Publication date: March 18, 2016. Page number: 12. © International
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