The Brazilian Military Regime
The Brazilian military regime has served as a model for the new geopolitical concept of the state — a model which has already been adopted in several Latin American countries and which is based primarily on the theses of Gernal Golbery Couta e Silva (head of the civil cabinet of President Ernesto Geisel). . . . The new model begins with the absence of those neutralizing powers which characterize the traditional Western state: those decorative legislatures and insignificant judiciaries. The people are a myth. Only nations exist, and the nation is the state. War belongs to the human condition and all nations live in the state of war. All economic, cultural, and other activities are acts of war either in favor of or against the nation. Consequently it is necessary to strengthen the power of the military as a guarantee for national security. The citizenry must understand that security is more important than welfare and that the sacrifice of individual liberty is also necessary. The armed forces are the national elite responsible for leading the state. This is justifiable in Latin America due to the inconstancy of civilians, who are demagogical and corrupt, and by the exigencies of war.
War is the condition of man, today more than ever before. Every man is a threat and a competitor. Every nation lives in a state of war. . . . War is total because it mobilizes the whole citizenry with all its resources. . . . War is total because all peoples and all countries are involved in it. Like it or not . . . war is total because all human activities are acts of war, all acts are acts of war and all tools are arms; the enemy is not on the frontiers, he is infiltrated everywhere. . . . War is total because there is no longer any Merence between peace and war. War is permanent. . . . National security is the absolute and unconditional value without restriction or limitation. . . . The total strategy has four parts; a. the economic strategy . . . for the development of national power . . . b. the psychosocial strategy whose purpose is to use ideas and other cultural objects to increase national power . . . c. the political strategy, which consists of orienting and using all the state organs . . . d. military strategy. . . . Who can take on the responsibility of total strategy? . . . Only the Armed Forces can take on this role of strategic elites . . . .
