from Quintin Hoare
An article by Sergio de Santis in this week's Mondo Nuovo(the organ of the new Italian left sccialist party PSIUP) offers an intoresting analysis of the events which led up to the right-wing coup in Brazil against Gculart's government and to the subsequent savage repression of left-wing forces. The most original points the author makes concern Goulart's ambiguous policy towards the crmed forces, the inadequicy of the taetics of the left during the crisis, and the role of the United States in the matter.
De Santis stresses the fatal contradiction between the two poles of Goulart's policy towards the armed forecs= on the one hand his attempt to replace reactionary senior officers by younger 'Nasserite! officers, and on the other his cncourngenoent of the politisisation and redicalisation of NCOs and other ranks; on the one hand an attempt to gain control from the top, and on the other hand an attempt to gain control from below. The cpisode which served as a pretext for the rebel gcncrals to make their bid for power brutally exposed this contradiction. 1540 sailors mutinied in protest against the arrest cf 40 of their comrades fcr carrying on left-wing propaganda activitics. Their action was assured of success by Goulart's backing. The Admiral of the Flect resigned, and the sailors received an absolute pardon. But it-is hardly surorising that the 'Nesserite! officcrsa were finally frightened off by these developnents and so backed the rebels rather than Goulart when it came to the crunch.
In contrast to the current press version which suggests that Goulart simply abandoned his left-wing allies to their fatc when trouble threatened, De Santis points out the utter failure of the left-wing forces to respond with any determinntion to the coup. Instead of coming out on to the streets the workers were sent home on strike- an ineffectual and pointless gesture in the circumstances.
Finelly De Santis suggests briefly the role played by the United States in encouraging 2 reactionary coup on the pict of the armed forces. The State Department afterwards hastencd to assure the world that the US had nothing at all to do with the events which happened in Brazil. But it was only a few weeks since Johnson hnd promised US aid to any Latin-American country 'whose freedom was threatened by forces from outside the continent! (this of course means Cubay the inevitable justification for any right-wing coup), and only a few days since the enunciation of the so-called Mann doctrine, according to which the US will no longer break off relations with any regime born from a military coup d'etat. And the coup was followed with suspicious specd by a message of congratulation from President Johnson, promising considerable aid in the near future. To put it simply, Washington could not conceal its delight.