International Wars and Conspiracy Theories

This chapter analyzes how master narratives of sinister foreign plans behind international wars have developed transnationally in Latin America. It reconstructs two cases of transnational diffusion of conspiracy theories, contrasting them with a case in which other master narratives prevailed. In the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–70) and the Chaco War (1932–35), conspiratorial interpretations of foreign designs gained momentum, reinforcing the image of victimization by external enemies. Such narratives downplayed the role of local political forces, as documented by historical research. Contrastingly, in the aftermath of the Pacific War (1879–83), conspiracy theories did not become the master narratives. The chapter discusses this variance in the transnational diffusion of conspiracy theories over Latin American wars.

Red Herrings

This chapter investigates two prominent red herrings: the Chaco War from 1932 to 1935 and the Iran–Iraq War from 1980 to 1988. It explains that the two red herring conflicts were widely assumed to have been oil driven. It also mentions Bolivia and Paraguay that purportedly fought over the Chaco Boreal's prospective petroleum endowments, as well as Iraqi president Saddam Hussein who supposedly invaded Iran in order to seize its oil-rich Khuzestan Province. The chapter points out that in the Chaco War, Bolivia and Paraguay knew that the contested territory did not contain oil resources, while in the Iran–Iraq War, Saddam's territorial ambitions were limited to small areas along the states' bilateral boundary. It emphasizes how the Chaco War and Iran–Iraq War were not fought to grab petroleum resources.