Born in Buenos Aires, he enrolled at the National War College in 1944, and took an interest in national politics before his 1948 graduation. A magnetic and charismatic figure, he was involved at that time in several liaisons with prominent women, through whom he invariably furthered his interests; he took little or no interest, however, in the children reported at that time to have been fathered by him. Suárez Mason took part in a failed military coup against the populist President Juan Perón in 1951. He was forced to retreat to Uruguay, and later collaborated with the overthrow of Perón in 1955. He was received back in Buenos Aires with honours following the coup's success on September 19.