7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7reestablished with the United States. Nonetheless, Mao’s
personality cult remained strong until his death in 1976.
Juan, Eva, and Isabel Perón
Respectively (b. Oct. 8, 1895, Lobos, Buenos Aires provincia,
Argentina—d. July 1, 1974, Buenos Aires); (b. May 7, 1919,
Los Toldos, Arg.—d. July 26, 1952, Buenos Aires); (b. Feb. 4, 1931,
La Rioja, Arg.)
J
uan Perón, his second wife Eva, and third wife Isabel
were important figures in 20th-century Argentinian
politics. Juan was an army colonel who became president
of Argentina during the years 1946 –52, 1952–55, and 1973–
74 and was founder and leader of the Peronist movement.
During Juan’s first term as president, Eva (Evita) became a
powerful, though unofficial, political leader, revered by
the lower economic classes. His third wife, Isabel, although
not as popular as Eva, served as president of Argentina
from 1974 to 1976 after his death.
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón entered military school at 16 and made
somewhat better than average progress through the officer
ranks. He served in Chile as a military attaché and travelled
to Italy to observe the rise of the Fascists and Nazis during
1938–40. Perón returned to Argentina in 1941, and in 1943
he helped overthrow Argentina’s ineffective civilian gov-
ernment. He held several government posts but was ousted
and briefly imprisoned in October 1945.
After a campaign marked by repression of the liberal
opposition by the federal police and by strong-arm squads,
Perón was elected president in February 1946 with 56 per-
cent of the popular vote. Perón set Argentina on a course
of industrialization and state intervention in the economy,