are also recognised with the purpose of being acknowledged by
other competing memories. Nevertheless, in accordance with
the Complete Memory view, the distinguishing element between
the two competing memories is the political actions carried out
by the human rights organizations and their search for criminal
prosecution of the military and police accused by the commission
of crimes against humanity. The Complete Memory is placed beyond
divisions, biases or disputes, i.e. beyond the politics and fights for
memory, to bring all Argentines together in a “complete” memory
of the recent past around “all victims”.
Over the past 35 years, the Army has experienced both a
continue and changing line of thinking in its memory as a result
of the negotiations and confrontations between the institution and
a claiming view in response to the “fight against subversion” and
the questioning of a society that demands answers for the crimes
committed. Therefore, the military use the slogan Complete Memory
and the memory of the officers killed by the armed organizations
during the 70s to recall the recent past given the need to find a
place in this adverse society, but also to maintain and recover their
values and institutional traditions. The virtues of the good officer
(the heroic officer) - whose symbolic weight is fundamental to
the military ethos - are based on the martyrology of the officers
who “died defending the fatherland from the subversion”. This
shifting from the living to the dead, from the “combatants” to the
“military victims”, reinforces the image of the Army as a victim
of the violence during the 1970s and fades away its
responsibility as the perpetrator of state and clandestine
violence unparalleled in the history of Argentina. As a
legacy for the future, for the military new generations,
the act of remembering not only means hiding those
responsible and their actions from their memories, but
also erasing the responsibilities of the institution from
the future interrogations and reflections on the past that
they have received.
“Soldier, don’t apologize for
defending the homeland” | V. Salvi
Bibliography
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dictadura”, en Responsabilidad y Juicio, Barcelona, Paidós. Lorenz, F. (2005). “«Recuerden, argentinos»: por una revisión de
la vulgata procesista”, Entrepasados, Año XIV, n° 28, 65-82.
Badaró, M. (2009). Militares o ciudadanos. La formación de los
oficiales del Ejército Argentino. Buenos Aires: Prometeo. Portelli, A. (2003). “Memoria e identidad. Una reflexión acerca
de la Italia postfascista”, en Elizabeth Jelin y Victoria Langland
(comps.) Monumentos, memoriales y marcas territoriales,
Madrid, Siglo Veintiuno.
Garaño, S. y Pontoriero, E. (2018). “‘Esta sangre es inmensa-
mente fecunda’. Un análisis de los funerales de los militares
‘caídos’ en la llamada ‘lucha contra la subversión’ (1973-1974)”,
en Quinto Sol. Revista de Historia, vol. 18.
Salvi, V. (2012). De vencedores a víctimas. Memorias militares
sobre el pasado reciente en la Argentina. Biblos: Buenos Aires.
Guber, R. (2007) “Bautismo de fuego y gracia de Dios. Las bel-
las memorias aeronáuticas de la guerra de Malvinas”, Tabula
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