Argentina-United States relations

Argentine–American relations

United States	Argentina

The Argentine Republic and the United States of America have maintained bilateral relations since the United States formally recognized the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, the predecessor to Argentina, on January 27, 1823. Since 1998, Argentina has been the only designated major non-NATO ally in Latin America, partly owing to Argentina's assistance to the United States in the Gulf War. Relations have been strained at times over the past few years, especially during the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration, but they have improved somewhat since President Mauricio Macri came to power in late 2015.

After Argentina became independent from Spanish rule, the United States formally recognized the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, the legal predecessor to Argentina, on January 27, 1823. The bilateral relations have seesawed over the last century and a half between normal trade relations and serious tension over ideology and finance. There has never been a threat of war.

Argentina was integrated into the British international economy in the late 19th century; there was minimal trade with the United States. When the United States began promoting the Pan American Union, some Argentines were suspicious that it was indeed a device to lure the country into the US economic orbit, but most businessmen responded favorably and bilateral trade grew briskly. Relations soured when Argentina refused to join the Allies in the First World War. Argentina had a large German element and Germany had made large-scale investments. However, as a prosperous neutral it greatly expanded trade with the United States during the war and exported meat and wool to the Allies through Britain.

Argentina hosted a fairly organized pro-Nazi element before the Second World War that was controlled by German ambassadors; Brazil, Chile, and Mexico had smaller movements as well. US foreign-policy worked to unite all of Latin America in a coalition against Germany. Argentina proved recalcitrant, and the United States worked to undermine the Argentine government. Washington's policy backfired when the military seized power in a coup in 1943. Relations grew worse, prompting the powerful farm lobby in Washington to promote economic and diplomatic isolation of Argentina and to try unsuccessfully to keep it out of the United Nations in 1945. Historians now agree that the supposed affinity between Argentina and Germany was greatly exaggerated.

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