The War Has Brought Peace to Mexico: World War II and the Consolidation of the Post-Revolutionary State

6. Preparing for Peacetime: July 1944–November 1945

175 six Preparing for Peacetime july 1944–november 1945 During the latter part of 1944, it became increasingly clear that the Allies would win the Second World War. The success of the Normandy invasion in June and the steady advance of the Red Army on the Eastern Front after it had turned back the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad guaranteed that Germany would eventually be vanquished, and the defeat of Japan would surely follow. Therefore, even as fierce battles continued to rage in the forests of Belgium and on heavily fortified atolls in the Pacific, officials around the world began to look ahead to the challenges that their countries would face after the conclusion of the global conflict. In Mexico City, as in other capitals, there was considerable uncertainty about the likely shape of the postwar order. Some Mexican commentators wondered whether Washington would maintain its benevolent “Good Neighbor Policy” after the war was over, and there was both enthusiasm (in leftist circles) and apprehension (among conservatives ) at the prospect of greatly increased Soviet influence in the international arena. The primary concern of ambitious Mexican politicians, however, was not the global balance of power but rather the distribution of political forces within their own country. Though presidential elections were still almost two years away, aspirants to the top office were already quietly preparing to vie for the post that the incumbent would be required to relinquish—because of the Constitution’s prohibition of reelection—in 1946. Given that the outcome of the war was no longer in doubt, that 176 c h a p t e r s i x the high cost of living continued to create economic hardship for most Mexicans, and that political rivalries were threatening to burst out into the open at the beginning of a long campaigning season, it might well have been expected that the Ávila Camacho administration’s grasp on the political situation would falter during late 1944 and early 1945. By continuing to insist on Mexico’s responsibilities as a belligerent and by emphasizing the now active nature of the country’s participation in the fight against the Axis, however, the president was able to maintain at least a facade of national unity during this challenging transitional period between the war years and the atomic age. HHH Announcing in July 1944 that Squadron 201 would be available for combat duty after the completion of its training was one way in which Ávila Camacho reminded his countrymen of Mexico’s role in the war, but it would be months before the unit would be ready to proceed to the front lines. In an effort to inspire unity and patriotism in the meantime, the president unveiled plans in August 1944 for a National Campaign Against Illiteracy, and significantly, he presented this program as a war measure, using his emergency powers to launch the initiative by decree. In promulgating a law that would require literate Mexicans between the ages of eighteen and fifty to teach at least one of their countrymen how to read and write, Ávila Camacho argued that “the defense of the country cannot be reduced, in the years of war, to the material organization of the military resources that we have undertaken to face the threats from abroad” and that Mexico’s security during wartime required “the profound factor of resistance that is represented by the intellectual, spiritual, and moral preparation of a nation desirous of conserving the vital patrimony of its liberties.” The campaign could also be justified as part of the war effort, the president said, because it was consistent with “the purest sense of our participation in the war,” which was based on a “true desire not to live in a world divided between the privileged and the oppressed.” Moreover, with the global conflict winding down, Ávila Camacho’s decree suggested that Mexico would have to remain on a war footing even after the cessation of hostilities, with workers continuing the “battle” of production “in the factories and in the fields” in order to contribute to the development of their country and the reconstruction of a war-torn world. And for those workers to achieve the “intensity of p r e pa r i n g f o r p e a c e t i m e 17 7 labor” that would be required of them in the postwar era, an educational effort beyond the capacity of the...