Abstract The paper discusses how, during the Peron years, Evita Peron successfully created a cult of personality around Juan Peron, as leader of the Peronista movement. The paper further discusses how Eva suggested that non-support for Peron and Peronismo was inherently unpatriotic. The paper examines how, in 1952, the popular Eva Peron's death hastened the decline of her husband's political fortunes. The paper further examines how the unified national support for Peron unraveled, causing the military to seize power from him.
From the Paper "Within Argentina itself, however, the Peron regime appealed widely to the masses, especially the poorest, e.g., the trade union descamisados, who most strongly supported it. Further, with significant help from Evita Peron's brilliant public relations strategies and tactics, the early years of Juan Peron's presidency encouraged an enthusiastic new Argentine nationalism. This was also in part because the Perons' leadership was both strongly nationalistic and strongly anti-United States. The United States was considered (and not inaccurately) by the Argentines and other Latin American nations to be grasping, imperialistic, and opposed to Latin American prosperity and self-sufficiency (Cockcroft). Juan Peron and peronista national policies appealed to average Argentines, at least at first, because Peron promoted national unity and promised increased prosperity; self-sufficiency, and an overall better way of life."
