The Strongman and the Charlatan
Juan Peron was conned by a German WWII aircraft designer named Ronald Richter, who had wildly misrepresented his credentials in a successful bid to get funding for a fusion reactor. Argentine scientists knew Richter’s claims were fanciful, but Peron wanted to believe in the Nazi scientist’s idea, so he did. Accordingly, much of Argentina’s budget was diverted to what came to be known as the Huemul Project, to build a massive compound for Richter on Huemul Island, in an Andean lake.
It was a costly mistake that backfired. In a humiliation for all involved, Richter’s claims were debunked almost immediately after they were announced by Peron. Richter was eventually jailed for having “misled” the Argentine president. Peron’s embarrassed government razed most of the lab to the ground, and tried to pretend that the whole thing had never happened. After Richter was released from prison, he settled down to become a chicken farmer. He insisted to his dying days that his idea had been practical, and that he had mastered nuclear fusion.
