The Argentinian Navy and its approach to “war against subversion” in the beginnings of state terrorism (1973-1976)

Abstract

This article studies the antisubversive approach for repression and extermination in the Argentine Navy during the 1973-1976 period. In the line of cultural studies of war, first I analyze the characterization of the internal threat made by military sailors based on the concept of “subversion”. Second, I explore the Navy’s measures and courses of action for internal warfare. In both cases, I investigate the links between the doctrine of the Navy with which the Army had been developing in parallel, as well as the connections with the two most influential schools of anti-subversive warfare on the local scene: the French and the United States ones. Through the analysis of norms, regulations, legislation and testimonies of the perpetrators and the victims I reconstruct the doctrinal and operational bases on which the repressive intervention and extermination of the weapon of the sea was mounted between 1973 and 1976.