The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II

by Mary Jo McConahay

One of WW2 Reads "Top 20 Must-Read WWII Books of 2018" • A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of September • One of The Progressive's "Favorite Books of 2018"

"Masterful...not only filled with engrossing history but includes a cast of characters who could be the subject of Hollywood movies." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Riveting...McConahay is a seasoned storyteller. Her stories are gripping, especially when she dives deep into little-known waters." — The Wall Street Journal

"Fascinating...In McConahay's telling, wartime Latin America is a hotbed of skullduggery, violence, and cinematic propaganda straight out of Hollywood." —Christian Science Monitor

The gripping and little known story of the fight for the allegiance of Latin America during World War II

The Tango War by Mary Jo McConahay fills an important gap in WWII history. Beginning in the thirties, both sides were well aware of the need to control not just the hearts and minds but also the resources of Latin America. The fight was often dirty: residents were captured to exchange for U.S. prisoners of war and rival spy networks shadowed each other across the continent. At all times it was a Tango War, in which each side closely shadowed the other’s steps.

Though the Allies triumphed, at the war’s inception it looked like the Axis would win. A flow of raw materials in the Southern Hemisphere, at a high cost in lives, was key to ensuring Allied victory, as were military bases supporting the North African campaign, the Battle of the Atlantic and the invasion of Sicily, and fending off attacks on the Panama Canal. Allies secured loyalty through espionage and diplomacy—including help from Hollywood and Mickey Mouse—while Jews and innocents among ethnic groups —Japanese, Germans—paid an unconscionable price. Mexican pilots flew in the Philippines and twenty-five thousand Brazilians breached the Gothic Line in Italy. The Tango War also describes the machinations behind the greatest mass flight of criminals of the century, fascists with blood on their hands who escaped to the Americas.

A true, shocking account that reads like a thriller, The Tango War shows in a new way how WWII was truly a global war.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Latin American History, Politics, Brazil

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Mary Jo McConahay is the author of the exciting new non-fiction book on World War II in Latin America, The Tango War, The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II, starred in reviews from Publishers' Weekly and Kirkus. She is author of Ricochet, Two Women War Reporters and a Friendship under Fire, and Maya Roads, One Woman's Journey among the People of the Rainforest. Maya Roads is a National Geographic Traveler Book of the Month, winner of the Northern California Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, three Independent Book Awards including best new nonfiction book, and named Best Travel Essay Book by the Independent Publishers Awards. McConahay has been named the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year, considered equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize in the genre. A journalist, Mary Jo is also a documentary filmmaker.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Tango” is an excellent metaphor for the South American response to World War II. Most countries were officially neutral, but when it was economically or politically convenient, leaders “tangoed” with the most advantageous partners.

I believe this is the tip of the iceberg and that Mary Jo McConahay has made an outline for future research. The issues seem to fall under resources, public relations, internment and military support. In the end you see the breadth of the “ratline” and a chapter explores potential ties to Nazi collaboration (and the ratline) to the dictatorships that followed. Throughout, there are wonderful portraits of the (mostly) men and women of this time and place.

The allies fearing that commercial products and services would be diverted to the Axis efforts co-opted them in ways straight out of James Bond. Examples include a meticulously produced forged letter brought down LATI, an Italian owned air service in Brazil; The US pressured the US airline, PanAm, to assist in eliminating the German staff of Bolivia’s SCADTA by surreptitiously sending its own staff to, all on one day, to show up for work and replace 150 German staffers; Securing rubber was accomplished by diplomacy, economics and military muscle.

Nelson Rockefeller headed a PR offensive that has colorful stories of Walt Disney and Orson Wells making and promoting films for the South American market.

In the devastation left by WWI, many Germans fled to South America. Some arrived with skills and capital. Many became successful and influential. Some Japanese who had come as contract farm workers had over 2 or 3 generations had worked up into the middle classes. McConahay describes the internment of (usually) the descendants of these immigrants. Some Japanese were held for prisoner exchange (while the US interned Japanese –Americans, it did not consider them for prisoner exchanges). 2000 were exchanged in this way and at the end of the war many of these South American Japanese were repatriated to Japan.

The Brazilians recruited “rubber soldiers” to help in the economic war. Brazil’s “Smoking Cobras” who fought valiantly in northern Italy and are honored there, but have had their memory buried in the right-leaning dictatorships that followed WWII.

There are interesting and new to me stories. I was unaware of the success of the German operations that seized non-combatant cargo ships or that J. Edgar Hoover received a de-encrpted message that Germany was sending spies to assess Hawaii’s defenses but was so enamored of the technology of the message that he did not follow up on its meaning. German spy Hilde Kruger seems to be German spy for her day on the order of Russia’s Maria Butina today.

Those interested in WWII will find new horizons in this book. This work will also be appreciated by anyone interested in South America, its history and political development. McConahay has laid out a blueprint and I hope it is followed by more work in this field.

[Stephanie Barko]

This book was recommended to me by my friend and neighbor Sol Sussman, in response to my ignorant comment one night over dinner that South America was uninvolved in WW II. Energy consultant Soll, who speaks fluent Spanish, said "You're wrong and boy, do I have a book for you."

McConahay's book reads like a spy novel, except it's all true.

Although I know what the hot commodities are in a pandemic, I only thought I knew what they were during WW II. One of the commercial histories I learned about in this book had to do with the auto industry and how the global demand for rubber was met during the war. Turns out there's a plant it comes from in South America. We knew that, right? Maybe so, but we didn't know how the plant ended up in vehicles and how it later came to be made synthetically not requiring the plant at all.

Another thing I learned is why so many Europeans ended up in South America, especially after WW II. I found the end of this book to be the most fascinating part as I followed Nazi after Nazi out of Germany on the ratlines to Argentina and Chile with the help of The Vatican.

Next time I hear someone say that South America was not involved in WW II, I'll be the one saying "Boy do I have a book for you!".

Terrific narrative nonfiction by a Navy brat journalist who's been all over the world.

[Donna Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read my copy free and early, thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press. This book is for sale now.

This meaty little nugget is one of a kind. I had sworn off World War II, both fictional and historical, because so much information gets repeated; you can only read so much about the most visceral parts of this conflict before your worldview darkens. I am out of the classroom and had promised myself a chance to stop and smell the roses in my retirement years. But then there’s this.

Firstly, there’s nothing about the Holocaust to speak of here. That was a draw card, because I am done with that most searing of horrors for awhile. Instead, she writes about Latin America during the war—and I knew nothing, nothing, nothing about any of this. I was aware that there were some nations down there that are reputed to have flirted with the fascists, and even then, I wasn’t sure it that was the truth or a myth.

The book is broken down, not by relevant Latin American countries, but by subtopics, and this is both more analytical and more interesting than if she’d done it the obvious way. Who knew that there was a model city established inside of the Amazon in an effort to rope more employees—well, slaves—into harvesting rubber for the war? Who knew that vast amounts of South American petroleum ran the trucks and tanks that rolled over Europe? Perhaps most appallingly—who knew that Japanese expatriates and their families, born and raised in Peru and other locations in Latin America, were kidnapped in a down-low deal between the US and the governments of the affected nations so that the US could intern them, then use them for prisoner swaps?

There are enough weird-but-true facts here to cross your eyes, and the author has her documentation at the ready. A fifth star is denied because of what isn’t here; why portray United Fruit as upstanding patriots? Many of us know this corporation was a sinister entity with its roots tangled deeply in the CIA. Lots of Guatemalans have plenty to say about United Fruit. More directly related here is the brief, friendly reference to Disney as a WWII patriot, and yet many of us know how warmly Uncle Walt regarded Hitler: the catch-phrase “Mauschwitz” says it all. Partial truths make me wonder what else I am missing as I read this.

With that one caveat, this book is recommended to you. The citations are thorough and the text is written free of technical terms that might hamper a wide readership. Read it critically, but do read it.

[J. Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compelling and disturbing read. It's compelling because it introduced me to a side of WWII of which I was largely unaware. It's disturbing because of some of the parallels with today -- finding out that "extraordinary rendition," for one, is not a new invention. I was dismayed to learn just how deep white Americans' (of which I am one) prejudices against Asians, Latinos, indigenous peoples, and more were ingrained in our government's treatment of these people. There were no "good old days" or "good wars." McConahay reveals the lengths the US went to to undermine governments, ruin foreign business people and their families, impose US will on sovereign nations, and more -- all things which were despicable and which influence our foreign policy today.

This is a powerful book I highly recommend.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book relates the involvement of South American and several Latin American countries during World War II. It describes how the region became strategically important for its natural resources and political influences. McConahay relates stories gathered from research and interviews. She includes such topics as espionage activities, Brazil’s contributions to Allied troops in the Italian Campaign, Allied and Axis influence on local governments, the acceptance of exiled Jewish refugees, and the postwar flight of Nazis.

It is organized around topics, such as intelligence networks, propaganda campaigns, international politics, and refugee movements. It zooms out to present regional overviews and zooms in to provide individual accounts. It is well written in a journalistic style. McConahay points out that Latin America’s roles are often neglected or minimized in global histories. I particularly enjoyed the analysis of how wartime events affected relationships with other countries for decades afterward and feel like this book enhanced my understanding of world history.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally a book about WW II and Latin America! A truly welcome addition that informs and illuminates the reader about many forgotten heroes, villains, and events. I thought I knew some things about the period but I was always being surprised by McConahay’s revelations. Her organization into five parts worked well: prizes, undesirables, illusionists, warriors, and end without an end. Some takeaways:

Mexican oil fueled Hitler’s blitzkrieg.

Mexico refused a US request to transfer Mexican Japanese citizens for internment in the US. Many other Latin American countries did not. Among them Peru, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. Axis citizens were basically kidnapped and sent to the US. Even anti-Nazi Germans were taken as they were an economic threat.

Brazil sent a 25,000 man force to fight for the allies in Italy. Hardly any modern Brazilian knows of this.

Germany and Italy set up all the aerial routes and dominated commercial aviation in South America prior to the war.

McConahay regales us with the usual tales of spies and the Nazi refuge stories. She also tells us about two Americans from Hollywood who had very different experiences helping the war effort there: Walt Disney and Orson Welles.

Just an eye opening account of a theater that we too easily dismiss as a sideshow.

[Terri Wangard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. So little is known about South America, and how the United States treats its southern neighbors.

I’d never heard of the US kidnapping Latin residents of Japanese heritage to use as pawns for exchange of American civilians held in Japan. Germans, whether Nazis or against the Reich, were grabbed under suspicion of espionage or sabotage. Lives were ruined of people who had nothing to do with the US.

The dictators admired fascist Italy and Nazism. How much suffering might have been avoided in the years since WWI if Nazi criminals hadn’t been allowed to escape to the Latin countries? Even the US Army and CIA taught how to use pain in interrogations.

When the Chilean dictator sought reforms for the good of Chile in 1970, the CIA attempted a coup. Henry Kissinger declared the “issues much too important for Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.” What rot!

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the review I wrote for the Los Angeles Review of Books:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a...

[Rachel Neugart · Rating 4 out of 5]

“War once begun has few limits in time or space”

McConahay is a reporter that presented a book of history I had never studied. Important for the world we are currently in. Will be using the index to learn more.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

World War 2 was a global war, and that included South America. Though only a handful of naval battles were fought around South America, the continent was the site of logistical, propaganda, and intelligence battles. McConahay is a journalist rather than a historian, and she looks for the human interest, finding the last of the Greatest Generation and telling their stories rather than digging into the archives.

Three major themes emerge. The first is the covert war for the resources of South America. In the 1930s, South America was full of Germans. Airlines and radio networks were run with German technicians, and there was a natural alliance between European fascists and local authoritarian populists, like General Vargas of Brazil. Stockpiled Mexican oil fueled the early blitzkrieg, but as the war went hot, the British naval blockade effectively cut South America off from the Axis powers, and South American resources went to the Allies. This economic maneuver was aided by intelligence efforts, as well as propaganda tours which had Orson Welles and Walt Disney tour the continent.

The second story is one of civilians caught up in the war. I hope most people are aware of the Japanese internment, one of the darker moments in American history for its unnecessary racist cruelty, but America also pushed Latin American countries to send their citizens of German and Japanese origin to the United States for imprisonment without trial, breaking families and shattering lives. Japanese-Peruvians were used as bargaining chips to free American civilians trapped inside the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.

And a third factor is the aftermath, the infamous "Nazis in Argentina" after the war. Both Allied intelligence services and the Catholic Church saw Nazi war criminals as useful agents for the next war against Soviet Communism, and were more than happy to provide ratlines to South American countries, where the perpetrators of the Holocaust could live out their days in peace. There are some links between these Nazis and the white terror of the 1970s in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, but the CIA and the School of the Americas have much more obvious ties.

McConahay also makes sure to tell about the almost forgotten Brazilian Expeditionary Force, 25000 soldiers who fought in the Italian campaign. Though in one of the horrible ironies of the war, the Brazilian rubber campaign, which sent out of work farmers from the northern coast to the Amazon to harvest rubber, suffered an order of magnitude higher casualties than actual combat troops.

The Tango War is somewhat scattered, but often fascinating, and shines a light on a forgotten theater of the war.

[Maria Almaguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did you know that 25,000 Brazilians fought for the Allies in World War II? Did you know that the Catholic Church aided Nazi criminals in their flight to South America because they believed that fascism was a necessary evil to combat communism? Did you know that the United States (with Peru's blessing) removed Peruvian citizens of Japanese descent, confiscated their businesses, and moved them into camps in the United States? Did you know that Germans, Japanese, Italians, and Jews had lived, worked, and raised families in South American countries long before World War II? This is why I read non-fiction! I love to learn new things and, in this book, I learned so much. I'd say this is required reading for all United States citizens and will definitely be a pick for a future Tuesday Night Book Discussion at my library.

[David Unger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Jo McConahay’s The Tango War is not only a long awaited contribution to understanding the struggle between Allies and Axis powers for control of Latin America, but a fascinating read. Instead of giving us a straight history of the World War II period, she divides her 300 page book into fourteen chapters with titles like ”Spies, Masters of Spies,” “Smoking Cobras,” and the intriguing “Seduction.” Her book is idiosyncratic in the best of ways: it gives a kind of collage insight into how Germany, Japan, the U.S. and the United Kingdom maneuvered to control Latin American natural resources such as oil and rubber (and the domination of air transport), but also the role of 25,000 Brazilians who took part in the invasion of Italy. There are chapters about Jews and Nazis (Here’s a disclaimer: the fate of my grandmother and great aunt on the infamous St. Louis and how my father Luis escaped Nazi Germany in 1933 is detailed), but also there are excursuses into the internment of innocent Japanese in both Peru and Panama. What McConahay has done, through countless interviews and by poring through ancillary documents, is to come up with a collage of the war years—Joseph Cornell, comes to mind--that reads more like linked short stories than, say, straight Doris Kearns Goodwin-style history. The Tango War is a lusciously, choreographed journey into a period that so resembles our present state. David Unger, Guatemalan author and translator

[Angelica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a very much needed read by Americans who are largely unfamiliar with how Latin America participated in WWII.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world needs more books like this to be written. And definitely read.

[James Rooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Second World War is an enormous subject and is sort of cliched in that it is the major focus of self-declared 'history buffs.' There are dozens and dozens of books on the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, Normandy, etc. But on occasion I like to examine what I call sidelights on the war, taking my cue from Hubert Reade's 'Sidelights on the Thirty Years War.'

Mostly this involves neutral Spain, as far as my interests go, but I found this title about Latin America and my interest was piqued. Like Spain, Latin America was mostly neutral, though many states did end up declaring war on the Axis, albeit their contributions were admittedly minor.

But while Brazil was the only one to send boots on the ground to fight in Europe, this is far from meaning that the Latin American states were unimportant or that they were in some sort of dream sleep while the rest of the world was fighting.

Latin America was important for both sides for a number of reasons, and McConahay takes us through a wonderfully entertaining and informative journey.

We learn facts such as the decision by Cardenas to nationalize Mexican oil, much against the protest of American and British oil companies. The latter responded by embargoing Mexican oil, which had the unintended effect of leaving Mexico to sell her oil to Germany. Oh yes, Germany's early conquests were fueled by Mexican oil. Ironically Mexico was the only state to protest the Anschluss with Austria as well, given that Hitler's army was initially running on Mexican gasoline.

German and Italian airlines dominated South America, and it is a curious thing that despite the US always claiming that Latin America lies in its own 'backyard,' large numbers of Americans have never emigrated south.

However, many Europeans did. There were large communities of Germans and Italians in South America, indeed McConahay opens this book with an incredible scene of goosestepping and Nazi salutes in Brazil! In the German community that resided in that country. Due to this large-scale German and Italian immigration the Germans and Italians had set up various networks, including airlines.

The United States and Great Britain had to employ a mix of bullying and trickery to get the Latin American states to close down the Axis airlines, but not before they had delivered a substantial quantity of strategic materials, like platinum, to Europe.

Apart from the Smoking Cobras, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force that fought with some distinction in Italy, we are told the story of the Aztec Eagles. These were Mexican pilots who flew with the Americans against the Japanese, and it is an astounding thing that in both Brazil and Mexico these participants are mostly forgotten today.

The most interesting part of the work for me was Operation Bolivar, the German intelligence apparatus that was involved in gathering information on the Allies, especially their movements by sea, and the game of spies that played out across the region.

McConahay notes that Mexico was particularly strategic because of her long open border with the US, and there is a cast of colorful characters such as the ravishing blonde German actress Hilde Kruger, as well as the spy chiefs like the enigmatic Canaris, Wild Bill Donavan, and the prickly J. Edgar Hoover.

My grandpa had a great love for espionage stories and histories, and lately I've been coming to appreciate this literary world. It is riveting stuff.

There is an entire section of the book devoted to American propaganda efforts south of the border, and it was news to me that Walt Disney and Orson Welles both traveled throughout Latin America and make films about their experiences. Orson Welles was surprisingly progressive in his racial attitudes, and who knew everyone loved Disney's cartoons so much?

Inevitably towards the end we delve into the murky underground of the ratlines. Prepare to feel dirty after reading this section, because the US Government, the Vatican, and God knows who else was involved in helping Nazi war criminals escape to Latin America. Some of them were found by the Israelis and faced justice, but infuriatingly many did not.

What interested me here was that it was more than just German criminals. I was shocked to learn that many Croatian Ustashe fled to South America too, including Pavelic himself. Argentina was keen to acquire European expertise, particularly in industry and engineering, so was willing to provide asylum for many Axis criminals.

Argentina even offered asylum to Belgian and French collaborators fleeing their home countries. This was a sort of Argentinian version of Operation Paperclip, and, amazingly, Argentina hosted Dewoitine who built a fighter jet for the Argentinian Air Force. Only the fifth one in history.

Spanish collusion comes in for a moment when we're told that German agents were brought to South America in Spanish and Portuguese merchant ships. Another violation of neutrality by Franco's regime that I had not known about. One can sympathize with Frederick Nelson's suggestion of using pericerts to catch such disreputable characters at sea.

In an effort to weed these agents out, the United States leaned on Latin American governments to arrest and deport all of their German and Japanese nationals, though amusingly not the Italian nationals who were seen as no threat.

There are a number of very sad stories of innocent men arrested and interned in the United States for being born in Japan or Germany, and this was one aspect of Allied internment that I was not aware of.

We learn that over time the US began to demand Japanese nationals in order to find prisoners to exchange over the Quiet Passages, and even that the US began to cynically uproot German and Japanese businessmen in order to squash their competition. I was reminded of Schoultz's work here when a government official admitted that these people were no threat to the United States, but it was nonetheless useful to curb their economic competition.

McConahay writes with verve and includes all kinds of little snippets about well-known figures that make for some fun trivia. We hear about Hemingway clumsily running a counterintelligence ring of Spanish Republican exiles, we hear about Che Guevara's father opposing the fascist policies of Peron, we learn that Benito Mussolini was named after the Mexican revolutionary Benito Juarez.

This adds a lot of flavor to the text, and reminds us to remain upbeat when reading about such episodes as the Evian Conference and eugenics. This does not make for pleasant reading, though more ambivalent is Getulio Vargas and his war for rubber.

Vargas sought to spread civilization into the Amazon, with mixed results, and here my own pet interest of the frontier thesis can make an appearance when McConahay says that the old practices survived despite government attempts to reform the rubber economy. We're treated to a description of Fordlandia, and the strange character of Henry Ford, a champion of sobriety and clean living, but also a rabid anti-semite.

As always, any naval aspects are a delight for me. I had acquired a book about Operation New Land and the U-Boat war in the Caribbean, but have yet to read it. McConahay reminded me that almost twenty-percent of shipping losses were sustained in the Caribbean and were inflicted by only a few German and Italian submarines. I learned also that they were enabled to operate around the clock using 'Milk Cow' submarines, which allowed them to refuel at sea without having to return to Europe.

This had a serious and typically overlooked effect on the Caribbean economy, resulting in widespread malnourishment and rationing. The River Plate is given some attention as well, and McConahay wonders why Langsdorff chose to scuttle instead of breaking out.

Even if the British battlecruisers hadn't actually arrived, it is not so mysterious to me because Langsdorff could never get back to Germany, and he was operating on borrowed time. As Churchill said of Spee in an earlier war, ships without a base are like flowers in a vase, destined to wither and die sooner or later.

The final section provides much for reflection. I have often wondered to what extent we could consider autocrats like Franco as fascist. How broadly can we extend this concept? I once asked was Napoleon fascist, was Napoleon III? Lewis Namier once called Napoleon III the first mountebank dictator and compared the Idees Napoleoniennes with Mein Kampf. A few words have examined the question of whether Napoleon III was a proto-fascist who presaged the likes of Mussolini.

Included in my question was, can we consider the caudillos of Latin America fascist? In the introduction to Tyrant Banderas the author drew an analogy between the dictators of Eastern Europe and those of Latin America, but the Eastern European dictators were communists.

This is, perhaps, getting too off track. But the sobering analysis in McConahay's book is that the modern caudillos, at least, are awfully like the fascists. We're treated to the likes of Peron and Pinochet. We learn about torture techniques, disappearing 'enemies,' women washing up on shore dead, ghastly horrors that fortunately we in the US do not experience.

Lars Schoultz in his work on American Security and Latin America wrote that in the Cold War the US State Department regarded any reformist movement as communist, and only gradually learned to tolerate reform as the only sure way to increase stability in the long run. McConahay reminded me of the earlier period, when the US regarded any reform movement whatsoever as evidence of communist subversion, and sought to prop up these shady dictators as per the Kirkpatrick Doctrine.

This opens the question of how much is the US responsible for the likes of ghouls like Pinochet? McConahay seems to attempt to draw a direct connection between the fascist criminals who escaped via the ratlines to the abhorrent practices of latter day caudillos, and there might be something here (e.g. with like Paul Schafer and Klaus Barbie). One hopes that the days of Latin American dictators taking inspiration from WWII fascists are over.

I found this book immensely enjoyable and readable. It has plenty of neat facts interwoven with personal stories and a great overview of the politics of the time. You will learn a lot from this.

[Douglas Noakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating little history of the "Good Neighbor Policy" FDR's United States employed before and during World War II with Latin American republics. The threat of fascism and the amount of German emigrants and businesses in Brazil, Guatemala and other tropic nations spurred Yankee politicians to start a cold war for hearts and minds, one that was generally successful. But there was a good deal of ugliness as well. I had no idea that, after the Pearl Harbor Attack 1,800 Peruvians of Japanese ancestry were renditioned TO THE UNITED STATES from their home nation because of a deal between Washington and Lima. (The Peruvian government apparently wanted the industrious Japanese settlers removed from the economy.) Many Japanese and German ancestry family members were sent to a rudimentary detention camp in Texas during this 1940s version of extraordinary rendition. This also happened to a lesser degree to Germans living in Central America.

In addition, Brazil sent thousands of soldiers to the Italian Front to fight against the Nazis and Mexico sent military pilots to the Pacific in the war to take on Japanese Zeros. McConahay does a very good job in tracking down and interviewing some of the military vets and/or their offspring. She also examines the goodwill tours that American celebrities like Walt Disney undertook in South American cities like Rio and Buenos Aires, to counteract pro-Nazi media and Hitler's efforts to keep German and Italian expats in the fold of fascism.

Another fact of pure ugliness took place after V-E Day: the well-named "ratlines" opened up by The Vatican to bring fugitive Nazis, including Adolph Eichmann, to pro-Axis nations like Argentina.

All in all, a very good read for those interested in stories of espionage and the extremes governments undertake in wartime. (Published in 2018)

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ties in well with Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series & Roberto Bolaño's Nazi Literature in the Americas.

It's history, not fiction,

[Barry Davidoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent well written book about Latin America and World War II. The author writes in a compelling style that makes each chapter compelling to read.
It contains neglected stories about how 25,000 Brazilians fought in Italy during 44-45 in mountainous terrain and snow and ice. She describes the importance of rubber, metals and other raw materials that were critical to each side.
The author provides clear insight into how certain countries became harbors for Former Nazis in the post war years. She concludes with a chapter in how certain countries the dictatorships used brutal methods to maintain their power.
The void of the role of Latin America during World War II is wonderfully filled by this book

[Carolyn Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many stories here that I had never heard before: how Latin America had millions of people with German ancestry well before WW2, how different countries reacted to US demands to turn people with Japanese ancestry over for internment in US camps, how different countries reacted to the many Jewish Latin Americans, how spies infiltrated government and Hollywood positions, how the state department liked Walt Disney's predominantly white version of Latin American better than Orson Wells' more honest depiction, how the Catholic church was instrumental in enabling Nazi war criminal to escape to Latin America.

The stories are told through both research and interviews with those who experienced this period.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkably even-handed and surprising accounts of efforts by Allied and Axis powers to use the citizens and governments of Latin America to advance their own causes. Aside from the Graf Spee, the Aztec Eagles, and the Zimmerman telegram, this was new (and often distressing) to me.

[Timothy Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tango war documents various aspects of WWII in South America. An oft forgotten “campaign” of the war, predominately regarding resources, espionage, and diplomacy.

Recommended for: History Buffs, WWII enthusiasts.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A forgotten theatre of war finally gets its due in this excellent book. No one ever stops to consider what might have been going on in Latin American during WWII, but this book shows that it was a busy, vital, and tragic part of the war. Exceedingly well done.

[Bob Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book. I had no idea Latin America was such a battleground between the Axis and Allied parties during WWII. But this well-documented book makes it very clear that it was, and why. There are chapters on the battle for natural resources, espionage activities, effect on civilian populations of Germans, Italians and Japanese in various Latin American countries, Jews, Fascist influence and activities in those countries, before, during and after the war, and the Vatican's role in assisting Nazis to escape Europe to South America.

[Terry Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very readable history. Anyone that read anything about the US ArmynRainbow Plans will recognize some of the details of the Purple Plan. This author, however, fills in some very interesting details which leads me to my one run with this book- the quotes and important details are not listed as footnotes. All the sources are listed by chapter.
Somewhere about chapter 12 and 13, the author infers the tyranny of association between South American governments and Nazi-Fascist links. The author also looks at Vatican inaction and complicity. All in all a very good book

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great history book about the US and South America during WWII. I have never heard anything about this section of history in High School nor College.
Absolutely fascinating. This is a must read for anyone interested in WWII history.

[Loren Shultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sobering account of the dangers and measures taken relative to Axis South/Central America before, during, and after WWII. A haunting account of who we think we are as a nation versus what our Western Hemisphere neighbor May see.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book jacket describes Mary Jo McConahay’s exploration of events before, during and after World War II as “the struggle for the hearts, minds and riches of Latin America.” Readers will be unfamiliar with many of the interesting stories she relates, but this is a patchwork that is not tightly organized or analytical.

As someone who watches old movies on TCM I was always struck by Hollywood’s brief flirtation with South America in films such as “Down Argentine Way” with Don Ameche, Betty Grable, and Carmen Miranda (who McConahay tells us was "the highest paid woman in the United States at the end of the war”). Another big budget Hollywood production was “Flying Down to Rio featuring Dolores Del Rio, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire.

Less well known is a Disney propaganda film released in 1943 based upon Walt’s travels through Latin America. Additionally, the popularity of Disney characters in Latin America was tapped for “The Three Caballeros”. Donald Duck is joined by a Mexican rooster and a cigar-chomping Brazilian parrot. Orson Welles was also conscripted to do a film in South America, but as he focused on the poor in Latin America, thus alienating Latin American dictators, the project was halted before completion.

It turns out that these productions were “seduction by celluloid”, a way to increase American influence in a propaganda battle with the Nazis and the Italian fascists.

Perhaps the most shocking revelation in the book is the story of arbitrary rendition to the US of thousands of those of German, Italian, and Japanese ancestry residing in Latin America. This was done out of concern that many were spies and a threat to the Panama Canal and other US interests, but there was little attempt to confirm whether individuals were really engaged in espionage before they were shipped to US detention camps. Of the 120,000 Japanese held in such camps, the story of those who were rounded up from the West Coast is well known. This was the first I learned that some 2,000 had been seized in Latin America. Many had never lived in Japan, some had Latin American citizenship, but all became pawns for prisoner exchanges with Japan. The reminiscences of those affected are among the strongest passages in the book.

Germans, many of whom were commercially successful in South America, might be fingered for deportation by local nationals who wished to rid themselves of a competitor. They, and those of Italian ancestry, were also deported to US detention camps.

Opening chapters in the book deal with the efforts of Germany to expand air routes across South America in the 1930s, to establish commercial ties in Argentina and Brazil, and to try to secure alliances with Latin American dictators. Nazi organizations sprouted in Latin American countries. Much is made of the attempt to secure scarce raw materials for Germany’s war effort.

There is also a brief discussion of the naval battles of the South Atlantic in the early part of the war and the submarine attacks against US merchant shipping in the Caribbean once the US entered.

But McConahay never provides an analysis of the strategic position of the Allies vs. the Axis once the war started. Germany, Italy, and Japan were never able to tap Latin America to feed their own war machines due to the power of the Royal and US navies. Thus much of the pre-war efforts of the Axis to ingratiate themselves with Latin American dictatorships were at the end of the day inconsequential. German submarine attacks were effective in the early part of the war but the US and Britain developed effective anti-submarine tactics as the war progressed.

The Panama Canal, at the forefront of US strategic concern, was never subject to attack as Japan and Germany lacked the means. Indeed much of the concern about spies in Latin America turned out to be greatly overblown.

Rather than coherent analysis exploring whether prewar efforts by Germany or others made a difference beyond creating brief US engagement with Latin America, McConahay jumps to other little known facts she has collected, such as the role of 25,000 Brazilian troops who fought Italy, or the escape route (“Ratline”) established to help former Nazis flee to South America at war’s end. The author makes much of the role of the Catholic Church in helping Nazis flee to South America after the war.

A final chapter is a digression about US support of Latin American dictators such as Peron in Argentina and Pinochet in Chile. This is tossed in when the reader would have preferred a summing up of the “Tango War” in World War II. The author engages in a lecture on the Church helping Nazi criminals and a polemic regarding American support of dictators in the 1950s and 1960s. Missing is a synopsis of what should have been the central theme of this book, the significance of “The Tango War.”

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

If goodreads allowed for half-stars, I'd give it 3.5.

This is a decent but disappointing overview of Latin America during WWII. It looks at various ways the lands south of the Rio Grande interacted with the outside world during WWII, both being affected by it and how this region affected the war.

The book has five different sections: providing supplies for the war, the treatment of Axis Powers nationals in Latin America, spies, Latin America and fighting the war, and post-war issues. While these areas are all worthy of attention, it strikes me that the first of these items - supplies - is by far the biggest and most important way the war and Latin America interacted. And we're basically done talking about that by page 70. That's only one-fourth of the way through the book. Simply put, the subjects of the book don't deserve equal time. For instance, I've read elsewhere that South American beef was a vital food source for England during the war. That's not addressed here. Oil & rubber are - and that's it. Those are the only resources mentioned. Most memorable bit of info: the battle for rubber saw the creation of 57,000 "Rubber Soldiers" in Brazil - men pressed into serious labor to maximize rubber production. 30,000 of them - a slight majority - DIED. Wow.

Some sections are given too much time. The parts on spying are OK, but it doesn't deserve three chapters and 60-odd pages. PAUSE: Actually - partial retraction. One of the three chapters is on "soft power" - using people like Walt Disney and Orson Welles to convey a positive image of America down there. That chapter was fantastic. But the chapters on spies were weak and should've been consolidated into one, shorter chapter.

There are two chapters on the postwar world, and while one of them (on Nazis seeking refuge in Latin America after the war) is nice, the other one (trying to find Cold War links to the WWII era) is easily the weakest chapter in the book.

The section on Axis nationals was interesting. Once Latin America agreed to support the Allies, citizens of Germany and Japan were largely concentrated in camps and held for the duration. Some Japanese-Latinos were sent to the US internment camps. The section on the war focuses on two main things: the Battle of the Atlantic, and Brazillian infantry fighting in Italy. Brazil sent one detachment, and elsewhere in the war Mexico sent pilots - but that was all the official fighting done by Latin America during the war.

[Wyndy KnoxCarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II, Mary Jo McConahay uncovers this neglected, generally unknown history of “the competition between the Allies and the Axis” for land, resources and political dominance in captivating detail. As a veteran journalist traveling worldwide and posted to cover wars in Central America and the Middle East for 30 years, this graduate of Cal Berkeley gives us a masterful and compelling rendering by not only describing key events, but by following political and individual persons involved in governing, map-making, aeronautics, rail and road-building, resource-hunting, diplomacy, propagandizing, spying and fighting battles.
They were escaping, filming and doing things as unheard of as rounding up Japanese Peruvians to deliver to FDRs detention camp in Texas, turning away ocean liners of European Jewish emigrants in Havana or sinking U-boats and Italian submarines in the Caribbean. Over a vast territory in our own hemisphere, “a distance of 6,640 miles from the Rio Grande…to the Argentine Antarctic,” action and human drama roils in the background of her history as smoothly as a Bogart and Bacall script.
This is the book to read if you never did figure out which side of the continent Chile and Argentina are on, where the rubber, oil and Panama Canal are exactly; colonial and imperialist heartlands, heroes and landscapes; what the U.S.A. really did and did not do.
McConahay describes curving Amazons of intrigues, alliances, courageous acts and vile betrayals. In some of the most shocking cases, mass murderers brought along the “Fourth Reich” and its hatred of communists, resolving to settle quietly working for Bayer, Krupp or Volkswagen in Central and South America or backing fascist dictators. Hollywood film crews and Disney animators explored and exploited the favelas and carnivals of Rio for U.S. PR, whole neighborhoods of urban European Jews bought up and settled in the pampas to raise alfalfa and cattle, celebrating the remainder of their holy days in peace. Who knew?
Same world, different challenges – or is it? Are they? Hear, hear!

[David Corleto-Bales]

This history of World War II in reference to Latin America is startling only because it has mostly been forgotten in the U.S. or was never known. In the 1930s, U.S. strategists were extremely worried about German and Japanese influence in Mexico, Central and South America, and yet put off much direct action until 1940 or 1941. The steps they took involved arrest and internment of ethnic Germans and Japanese in countries as different as Costa Rica, Guatemala and Peru, (they were interned along with the Japanese-Americans in U.S. camps) the "replacement" of ethnic German immigrants in Latin American countries in certain occupations, (like airline pilots) by Americans, and a propaganda campaign to compete with the Nazi propaganda campaigns led by Walt Disney and Orson Welles. There were plenty of sea battles fought off of South America, and did you know that Mexico and Brazil (among others) declared war on Germany and Japan? Mexican soldiers fought in retaking the Philippines and 30,000 Brazilian soldiers fought in the very difficult Italian campaign in 1944 and 1945. The book ends with a discussion of how Nazis often escaped to South America with the held of the Odessa and some right-wing clerics in the Vatican.