Il cinema strumento di hard power. Come gli Stati Uniti distrussero l’industria filmica argentina durante la Seconda guerra mondiale

The article focuses on the Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA), founded and led by oil magnate Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1940, which shaped the US policy toward Latin America during World War II. As one of a series of emergency agencies established to deal with urgent security issues, the OIAA was set up to strengthen the economic, political, and cultural ties with Latin America in order to combat Axis inroads into the hemisphere, deepen U.S. influence in the region, and secure the allegiance of Latin America in the upcoming struggle. While Brazil,the most important war partner of the United States, served for a variety of OIAA programs, pro-axis Argentina fell victim of the US embargo politics, which led to the destruction of the Argentine film industry. A first strategy was to put pressure on Argentine cinemas, so that they would banish German and Italian films from their programs. If they refused to do that, they were threatened of not receiving US films anymore. Another US strategy was to limit the exportation of raw film material to Argentina to a minimum. Both measures severely damaged the local film industry and show that film as an economic and cultural product could be an object of hard power.