When the Second World War broke out, Americans—isolationists or not—expected a re-run of the First World War: a long pounding match. Then the German army smashed into France in Spring and Summer 1940. France surrendered and replaced the decrepit Third Republic with the collaborationist Vichy regime. The French Empire in West Africa–nominally under the control of France, but vulnerable to German seizure–stretched westward into the Atlantic. Brazil lay within flying distance of Dakar. Suddenly, Latin American affairs seemed of more than the usual importance in Washington.
North Americans viewed South America as more than just a potential beach head for German invaders. The continent held vast natural resources that might feed the Nazi war-machine. On its Caribbean shore, the continent abutted the shipping routes to the Panama Canal. Moreover, the colonial heritage from Spain and Portugal–rather than American imperialism–made South America a politically tumultuous place. Elites continually struggled with populists for control of the governments, and the armies of the continent did not always favor the “forces of order.” To make matters worse, in the view of Washington, the region had received hordes of German and Italian emigres in the previous hundred years. In the age of the “Fifth Column” suspicions ran hot.
As a result, South America became a battleground between the Axis and the Anglo-American Allies. For their part, Germany and Italy hoped to restrict the flow of natural resources toward the United States and to enhance the influence of their emigrant brothers. For their part, the Americans sought to build a Trans-Atlantic air ferry route to fly bombers and transports from Miami through Brazil to West Africa; they sought to monopolize purchases of raw materials, whose price spiked during the war and continued into the post-war reconstruction period; and they sought to squelch pro-Axis sentiment. Propaganda played a large role for both sides, although—like most propaganda—the effort availed them but little.
The Latin American countries were eager to profit from all this interest, yet they were not eager to be drawn into the war itself. Nevertheless, the turning of the tide led some Latin American countries to join the fight. Brazil sent 25,000 soldiers to fight in Italy and Mexico allowed a small number of its air force pilots to serve against Japan. In contrast, Juan Peron’s Argentina refused to engage in the war against the Axis until the very last moment. Peron’s regime illustrates a number of the key themes. He had served as military attache in Mussolini’s Italy; Argentina had received many German and Italian immigrants; and Argentina profited enormously from the spike in raw materials prices during and after the war. Perhaps as a result, Argentina became the favored rat-hole for Nazi war criminals on the run, including Eichmann.
 Mary Jo McConahay, The Tango War: The Struggle for Hearts, Minds, and Riches In Latin America During World War II (2018).
 Henry Ford had established a rubber plantation in Brazil to insure the raw material for car tires. He wanted to be free of dependence on the British Empire’s Malayan rubber during an era of bitter Anglo-American economic competition that was strategically forgotten during the Second World War. On this fascinating episode, see Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City (2009).
 This could go to what now look like shameful lengths. Amends have scarcely been made to the Americans of Japanese ancestry who were evacuated from the West Coast, but who now remembers the Peruvian-Japanese?
 Rather like Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Turkey.