'The war has brought peace to Mexico': The political impact of Mexican participation in World War II

This dissertation shows that the international situation during the early 1940s played a significant role in facilitating the consolidation of the single-party regime that dominated Mexican politics for the rest of the twentieth century. Drawing upon a range of official sources and private papers in Mexico and the United States, this study explains how President Manuel Avila Camacho (1940-1946) took advantage of the crisis atmosphere surrounding World War II to strengthen the Mexican state and to expand the powers of the presidency. The war allowed the president to insist upon a policy of "national unity" that served to suppress factional infighting within the official party and to limit the political options available to opposition groups. The national unity policy also contributed to an improvement in official relations with the Church, while efforts to prepare the Mexican armed forces for the challenges of modern warfare facilitated the creation of a more professional, less political army. Moreover, the war also made it possible for Mexico to repair its frayed ties with major powers such as the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union; the Avila Camacho administration took full advantage of this opportunity, often finding ways to gain valuable benefits for Mexico in its dealings with Washington and other governments. Mexico's leaders did not always find it easy to convince their compatriots that the country had a significant role to play in the global conflagration, but by appealing to Mexicans' nationalism and patriotism, and by bringing the country into the war gradually, Avila Camacho was able to wield the power of a wartime president without triggering insurmountable opposition from those of his countrymen who were at best ambivalent about Mexican participation in the conflict. All of these developments played a key role in the emergence of a more conservative, more institutionalized Mexican state in the post-war period.