It would be worth sending a researcher to the archives of to consult the conduct of Getúlio Vargas during the early years of World War II. He had a huge pineapple on his lap.
After the entry of the war in 1941, Brazil was at risk of an invasion to ensure the control of landing tracks in the northeastern protruding. Flying from Christmas, American planes could reach Africa.
The characters of this time had nothing in common with those of today’s crisis. American President Franklin Roosevelt was a friendly professional while making antipathy a lifestyle. Vargas cultivated his silences, already speaks what comes to mind.
With the entry of Brazil into the war and the creation of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, Getúlio made lemon (the risk of invasion) a lemonade. The silence was your weapon.
By 1938, a year before the war began, the United States were already looking at the strategic importance of the northeastern protruding.
Getúlio was a sphinx, but the generals Eurico Dutra and Góes Monteiro were taken off. One was Minister of War and the other, head of the army’s staff and military owner of the Estado Novo.
The US mapped to the bishop’s house
In January 1939, Americans called for the first protruding occupation study. In August, a month before the start of the war in Europe, the US Army drew the Rainbow plan. Practical, it resulted in the sending of a consul to Christmas, with the purpose of gathering information. Months later the city was mapped, even locating the bishop’s house.
In May 1940, Vargas wrote:
“The news of the war is of a true collapse to the allies. The people, on instinct, fear the German victory; the Germanhils are exalted. But what emphasizes evident is the unforeseen event of the so-called liberal democracies.”
Months after Paris’s taking, the German ambassador in Rio thought the Brazilian military would not accept US basis if the United States entered the war. Okay, but the same week, the Americans were watching Christmas and recorded:
“The airport is not stored by troops or police … Transport aircraft from Africa or Azores may surprise land troops and occupy Christmas and other cities in Brazil.”
Vargas was balanced, promised the base, negotiating weapons and, if possible, a steelmaker. The Americans built landing lanes with a secret fund and the Panamerican Company logo.
The German ambassador was still convinced that there would be no agreement. After all, the Generals Dutra and Góes Monteiro wrapped and complained to Vargas. He wrote: “The Minister of War told me about the plans that the Americans fed, of occupation of our territory” (…) “Góes convinced that Americans want to occupy our Northeast territory, under the pretext of defending us against German attacks.”
In September 1941, Dutra was clear:
“The coming from American elements to Brazil would result in the consequence of nullifying our sovereignty in the region.”
In 1993, reporter Lauro Jardim revealed that, in November 1941, the United States had a plan to invade Brazil, occupying Natal, Recife, Belém, Salvador, São Luís, Fortaleza and the island of Fernando de Noronha.
In December, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The US entered the war and fetched the northeastern protrude. The then Lieutenant Colonel Kenner Hertford would say:
“To shorten the story, Brazilians accepted one hundred Marines in Belém, one hundred in Natal and one hundred more in Recife and Fortaleza. (…) agreed that our army took control of airport towers. Initially, they could not wear uniforms.”
Parnamirim’s track near Christmas was one of the busiest of the time.
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