In July 1948, the Chilean military attaché in Buenos Aires relayed to Santiago reports originating from Radio Moscow alleging that the United States had reached an agreement with Argentina over the sovereignty of Antarctica. Although the Chilean Foreign Ministry regarded such reports as false, the episode was an early example of a number of attempts made by the Soviet Union to take advantage of international discord in the Antarctic Peninsula region to upset the Western alliance. During the 1940s and 1950s, the sovereignty of the Antarctic Peninsula region was contested by Argentina, Chile, and Great Britain – three key Cold War allies of the United States. Although Cold War confrontation never came directly to the Antarctic Peninsula, the politics of the Cold War exerted a significant influence the history of the Antarctic sovereignty dispute: while Soviet propaganda heighted tensions, fears of Soviet intervention at the same time acted as a restraining influence. In turn, the history of the Anglo-Argentine-Chilean dispute helped to shape the history of the Cold War in the Antarctic continent more generally, most obviously by providing the United States and its allies with an important motivation for the negotiation of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which suspended sovereignty claims to Antarctica and created a continent “dedicated to peace and science.”

With a particular focus on the connections between science and politics, this paper will examine the history of the Anglo-Argentine-Chilean sovereignty dispute in the Antarctic Peninsula through the lens of the Cold War. All three sides in the dispute used science and the environment to support their respective claims. The Chileans and Argentines, for example, argued that their geographical proximity to the Antarctic Peninsula and the geological contiguity of the Andes Mountains into the “Antartandes” gave them rights to sovereignty that that the British did not have. Such geographical considerations also had clear geopolitical implications: proximity to Antarctica made Argentina and Chile increasingly fearful of Soviet presence in the southern continent, and more concerned about the impacts of possible nuclear testing in the region. This paper will argue that the 1959 Antarctic Treaty can be understood not only as a Cold War document, but as a Cold War document that was refracted through the history of the sovereignty dispute in the Antarctic Peninsula. The history of the Anglo-Argentine-Chilean dispute helps to explain important provisions within the Antarctic Treaty such as suspension of territorial claims and the prohibition of nuclear testing. And the Cold War context helps to explain why countries such as Argentina and Chile were willing to sign and ratify the Antarctic Treaty despite their initial reluctance.