Evening star., 1954-08-25
Vargas and BrozI

It is an immensely tragic thing that
President Getulio Vargas of Brazil, in the
twilight years of his somewhat fabulous life,
has died as he haS-in that deep well OF
loneliness, in that dark turmoil of personal
torment, in that terribly mixed-up but in
sistent frame of mind and soul that leads a
man to destroy himself.
What is the story behind this act? Only
the bitterest and rashest of his critics would
presume to offer dogmatic or cocksure an
swer. After all, there is but one thing that
seems clear: Brazil's armed forces had de-
cided on getting Mr.. Vargas out of Office.
Rightly or wrongly, together with members
of his personal and official family, he had
become linked with reports of grave scandal
in high places, with corruption in govern
ment, and even with murder. And so it had
finally been agreed upon-with himself as
senting-that he should take "a leave of
absence" from the presidency. On second
thought, however, he apparently found that
such course would be too humiliating to
be lived with, and hence his desperate and
irrevocable gesture.
That MIR. Vargas should have come to
such an end seems the more shocking, and
the more tragic, because Of the towering
role he played in the life of his nation. Thus,
for IS years-from 1880 until the army de-
posed him in 1945-he was Brazil's "strong
man." In that capacity, though frankly
dictator displaying some of the dictator's
usual excesses, he undeniably did great
deal of good for his countrymen, and at the
same time, under his leadership throughout
the Second World War, he allied them
firmly on the side of the free and brought
their relations with the United States to an
all-time high of friendship and co-opera-
ton. And in turn, by and large, they were
devoted to hin1-so much so that he won
with relative ease in the 1850 elections that
made him genuinely constitutional Presi-
dent for term of five years. Moreover, in
this recent official phase of his, despite the
habits Of his dictatorial past, he avoided his
former repressive measures even though he
must have been sorely tempted at times to
crack down, for example, on certain Bra
lillian newspapers intensely opposed to him.
What remains to be seen now-now
that this man has done away with himself
lis whether his successor, Vice President
Cafe, will be able to keep the country stable
until the electorate has a chance to vote for
a new national administration next year.
agement and corruption, Brazil-where Mr..
Vargas had lost much of his old-time pop
ularity-is unquestionably faced with seri-
Gus economic problems, and its outlawed
Communist Party, which is by far the big
gest in all of South America, can be counted
upon to exploit the resulting discomfort
and do everything possible to turn the
present uncertain and tense political stu
alton to their advantage.
Still, under the impact of Mr.. Vargas
great influence over the years, Brazil has
developed in way that would seem to make
it anything but an easy target for chaos
breeding Red subversion. And that fact,
plus the fact that the armed forces appar-
emily are determined to preserve constitu-
tionaI order, strongly suggests that the
country will succeed in riding out the storm
now troubling it.