Juan Domingo Peron, the President of Argentina at the time, was a keen fencer and skier. A colonel in the army, he was made Honorary President of the Argentinian Olympic Committee and the Argentinian Sports Confederation (CADCOA). As the distinguished Argentinian academic Cesar Torres later observed: "what Peron wanted was an athlete in every Argentine".

Buenos Aires was to have hosted Pan American Games in 1942, but war made it impossible for them to go ahead. The idea was revived in 1948 after Argentina sent a team of more than 200 to the London Olympics, the largest they had ever assembled.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice president Avery Brundage also joined a gathering of 25 sports officials from the Americas. 

"There is a sound foundation for the Pan-American idea," the American said. "They will build new and closer bonds between the American democracies."

Brundage was elected leader of a new Pan-American Games Association as Buenos Aires was chosen to host the new event in 1951.

The city were also bidding for the 1956 Olympics and the Pan American Games were seen as a way to "satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the Government and that of the athletes of the continent". 

They lost out by only one vote to Melbourne in the Olympic contest but did also win the right to stage the World Basketball Championships in 1950.

Progress in preparation for the Pan American Games caused Brundage concern. Ricardo Sanchez de Bustamante, the outgoing CADCOA President, introduced his successor Rodolfo Valenzuela as the new leader and the Games' Organising Committee chief.

"Dr Valenzuela is very closely connected to high official circles and I do not doubt he will obtain all of the necessary support to assure the success of the coming Games," he said.

Valenzuela had been an Olympic fencer in the 1920s. He would have come into contact with Peron, who had also been chosen for the Olympic squad, although military service had prevented his participation.

Peron was keen to use the 1951 Games to promote his "New Argentina". Behind the façade, his was an authoritarian Government dominated by the military. A month or so before the Games were to begin, the Buenos Aires newspaper La Prensa closed its doors and violent scenes were reported when they tried to re-open.

An ongoing political dispute saw Uruguay refuse to participate but all the other visiting teams arrived at the city's new airport, one of the first major infrastructure projects to be completed by the regime.

Although information on preparations had been in short supply, everything was indeed made ready for the opening on February 25. It was summer in the southern hemisphere, but storms swept through the city and destroyed decorations. Workmen were immediately sent out to make repairs.

Male athletes stayed at a military college converted for the purpose. There were no telephones, but the Village did have some unwelcome visitors.

"The mosquitoes were very bothersome during the night," reported American team official Lyman Bingham. 

"Every morning a detail of workmen made the rounds of the sleeping rooms spraying DDT." 

Peron also visited and told participants: "Argentina offers this its humble home but it does it with the heart of a brother and a friend."

Peron called Argentina's team "the synthesis of a whole people". He visited them before the Games and told them success would be guaranteed by "exertion, faith and determination".

His wife Eva Duarte de Peron, better known as "Evita", had established the charitable Eva Peron Foundation. Although it was later vilified for corruption, it played a role in encouraging sport and initiated youth tournaments in football. During the Pan American Games its buildings were converted to accommodation for the female athletes.

It was also Evita who insisted there would be free entry for all children at the Ceremonies.

"In the new Argentina, the only privileged ones are the children," she said.

This idea has been brought up to date in 2018. A special "Pase Olimpico" bracelet equipped with computer chips will be distributed to spectators at the Youth Olympics.

The 1951 Opening Ceremony was among the first to take place under floodlights. It began at 8pm in the evening at Racing Club's Avellaneda Stadium. This had been christened "El Estadio Presidente Peron". Above the stands, in lettering two metres high, were phrases from Peron's Presidential speeches.

Children in the crowd had been given miniature flags, overprinted with Peron and Evita. The choir sang "Muchachos Peronistas", a party song.

It prompted New York Times sports writer Arthur Daley to write: "It is unfortunate that the Games had to encounter the same political hobgoblins that haunted the 1936 Olympics. 

"It seems a mite surprising to discover such nationalistic signs in a supposedly supra-nationalistic setting." 

He suggested these Games were more politically overt than Berlin. There, although the Olympic flag was outnumbered by swastikas, Hitler followed Olympic protocol to the letter at the Ceremonies.

London 1948 Olympic marathon champion Delfo Cabrera carried Argentina's flag. Later in the week he delighted crowds with another marathon victory. Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion spoke of "an echo of London". 

"With the exception of the Olympics no event has such as scale as the Pan- American Games," they said. 

IOC President Sigfrid Edstrom sent greetings and basketball player Oscar Furlong raised the Olympic flag.

Greek IOC member Ioannis Ketseas took a flame lit on Acropolis Hill from Athens to Buenos Aires. 

Basketball player Aristidis Roubadis and Ioannis Sossitis accompanied him to participate in the Ceremony. An olive branch was given to Evita.

"To you Senora, the greatest supporter of sport in her country," she was told. "In the name of the sporting youth of Greece, I have the honour to present this modest garland of olives from the cradle of sport which represents the greatest sporting honour."

United States women's athletics team manager Evelyn Hall also presented a bouquet to Evita on behalf of visiting teams.

The President opened the Games with a greeting to "his brothers of America" but Argentina's first lady ensured the "sisters" were not forgotten. She requested that a woman also take the athletes' oath. So it was that decathlete Enrique Alberto Kistenmacher was joined by fencer Elsa Irigoyen. Not until 1972 would a woman speak the oath at the Olympics. 

Because of the late finish, it was decided there would no competitions the following day because those attending "would be in no condition to do their best".

The US were dominant in basketball. Drawn from Oakland and Indiana college teams, they had an average margin of victory of more than 25 points until the final against the host nation. This began at 1am in the morning, appropriately at the Luna Park Arena. It proved to be the closest contest of the entire competition, a 57-51 victory for the US. 

Twenty-five thousand were packed inside including President Peron. It was said that thousands more were locked outside. If 3x3 basketball at the 2018 Youth Olympics proves half as popular, organisers will be delighted.

A team from Wake College, North Carolina, represented the US in baseball and lost out to Cuba for gold.

Athletics was held at the Estadio Monumental, home of River Plate Football Club. Olympic 800 metres champion Mal Whitfield added the 400m to complete a double for the US and Bob Richards won the first of two Pan American titles in the pole vault.

There was also a synchronised swimming exhibition at the Belgrano Athletic Club.

"It requires almost incredible breath control and muscle control plus an infallible sense of rhythm," reported an admiring Buenos Aires Herald.

Sisters June and Gale Taylor, Canadian duo champions, wore matador costumes for their opening number and later appeared as goldfish. "Their gay orange suits with flippers delighted the audience with their fish like leaps," it was reported.

Grand Prix show jumping preceded the official closing. Chilean captain Alberto Larraguibel won individual gold. Chile also won the team event. As well as dressage and eventing, equestrian sports included polo. Argentina's 1936 Olympic gold medallist Roberto Cavanagh joined brother Juan and Enrique and Juan Alberdi to win gold.

There was one more horse at the Closing Ceremony. The Mexican team came forward to present it to Peron on behalf of former Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho. The next host city was Mexico City.

Peron closed the Games, speaking of "a school of healthy men, healthy of body and mind, of good men that fight for the greatness of country without thinking of any other goal than this greatness itself".

Evita tied blue and white ribbons to the flags of the competing nations.

"With the sadness of people who see good friends depart, we say, until you give us the next opportunity to welcome you again in the New Argentina of Peron," she said.

For Brundage it was all "a tremendous success". 

"The Latin American nations really are becoming sports conscious," he claimed.

The following year, Brundage became IOC President but 1952 proved a year of tragedy in Argentina. Evita died of cancer. Her funeral in Buenos Aires was a demonstration of national grief. 

Although Peron was re-elected President, without his wife at his side his power waned and in 1955 he was deposed by another military coup.