The Tango War

July 15, 2018
A fascinating narrative of the struggle for Latin America during World War II featuring untold stories of politics, propaganda, spycraft, and intrigue.In her latest, journalist McConahay (Ricochet: Two Women War Reporters and a Friendship Under Fire, 2016, etc.) gives an account thick with detail and unexpected twists regarding America's efforts to control the resources of Latin America. An army marches on its stomach, and a modern mechanized army requires oil, rubber, and steel as much as food. With Europe, Asia, and North Africa drawn into the conflict, the world turned to Latin America to power its war machine. As the author writes, "war once begun has few limits in time and space," a point that her broad, exciting history bears out. Chronicling Mexico's role in selling oil to an otherwise fuel-famished Nazi regime, the fight for rubber in Guatemala and Brazil, American kidnappings of Japanese residents in Peru, the Catholic Church's assistance to the "ratlines" through which Nazi war criminals escaped to South America, and the "hydra-like Nazi system of intelligence and communications" that operated throughout the continent, McConahay displays scalpel-sharp precision with details and a nose for unintended consequences. Indeed, the dominant theme in the book might be American self-sabotage. Allied efforts in the region were consistently stymied by inexpert meddling in Latin American affairs, enforcing vast inequality and expropriation of wealth, and opposing democratic reforms. The debacle in Mexico, where the American oil industry's boycott of its nationalized reserves drove the country into the arms of the Axis, is probably the most striking example. However, the repeated kidnappings of Japanese people living in Latin America to use in prisoner exchanges with Japan is what may stick in readers' minds the strongest.Fast-paced and informative, this is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand World War II and some of the forces that led to it.

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Starred review from August 6, 2018
Journalist McConahay (Ricochet: Two War Reporters and a Friendship Under Fire) tells the gripping and often overlooked history of Latin America during World War II. Despite its proximity to the United States, it was by no means a given that the region would side with the Allies—many ethnic Germans, Italians, and Japanese lived in the region, Axis airlines ruled Latin skies until 1941, and Latin oil flowed to Fascist forces. With great verve and detail, McConahay recounts the reverberating “shadow war for the Western hemisphere”: the competition for control of the region’s airways early in the war; the dramatic rivalry over its strategic resources; the vast surveillance networks constructed by both sides throughout the continent; thrillingly told espionage and propaganda operations; Atlantic sea battles; the U.S. program of political kidnappings of civilians whose ancestors came from Axis countries; and the flight of both Jewish refugees and fascist criminals to the region. McConahay brings in a wide cast, among them Japanese-Peruvian detainees, Brazilian soldiers, Nelson Rockefeller, and spies such as the Canadian-born British intelligence agent William Stephenson. Throughout, McConahay reminds readers of the damage the U.S. has wrought in the region over two centuries. This lively book, driven by colorful personalities, strikes the ideal balance between informative and entertaining.

November 15, 2018

Aimed at general readers and centered on how the global fight against fascism played out in Latin America, each page of this thoughtful and empathetic work is a revelation. Journalist McConahay (Maya Roads) characterizes the web of naval clashes, spying, smuggling, diplomacy, extraordinary rendition, and dueling ideologies as "the shadow war for the Western Hemisphere." History is narrated as a series of compelling vignettes, often focusing on ordinary people caught up in events. Some stories are inspiring, some troubling. Latin American regimes deported thousands of their own people to the United States, where civilians faced indefinite detention because of their German or Japanese origins. It was also true that Latin America swarmed with spies. While Germans gathered intelligence and torpedoed merchant ships, the United States spread propaganda, including Walt Disney's film Saludos Amigos, to foster goodwill. The most inspiring story is of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, which fought Nazis in Italy. Troops fought so fiercely that they earned the epithet "Smoking Cobras." VERDICT McConahay sheds light on long-neglected history in this fantastic read that will have far-reaching appeal.--Michael Rodriguez, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018
McConahay, an award-winning independent journalist whose father was stationed in Latin America during WWII, has written a lively history that illuminates that period in Latin America. The book is broken up into easily digestible chapters, each dedicated to a topic such as oil, Jewish refugees, spies, and war criminals finding sanctuary. McConahay conducted solid research and writes with an unprejudiced eye, peppering her narrative with fascinating anecdotes about both ordinary people and celebrities such as Henry Ford and Orson Welles. She also offers insights into the nefarious machinations of the U.S. government, which, while engaged in the so-called Good War against the Nazis, leveraged its power and influence on Mexico and Central and South America with ambitions for future capitalist gains. Although the stories take place on a global stage, McConahay has followed their ripples to the personal level, the book's most engaging feature. With tales about the Panama Canal and Latin American troops and pilots fighting in both Europe and the Pacific, McConahay's survey offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on a pivotal time and place.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)