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This study focuses on the regimes that governed Brazil over the twenty-one-year span ending in 1985. The book examines the organization and the record established by the military during that period, with attention also given to the ideologic tendencies and internal divisions within the military elite. It also considers what obstacles the regimes could not overcome, and where that resistance came from in each of the five regimes. The term mission used in the title of the book, is chosen by the author to describe the non-military mission the leaders accepted-- to them a duty-oriented commitment to the people of Brazil in seizing the reins of the government from President Goulart in 1964. The other part of the title, mufti, also relates to what appears unique: each incumbent in the presidency permanently severed his hierarchical control over the armed forces by retirement from active duty, donning civilian clothes and never again appearing in uniform.

The first chapter of the book attempts to identify the factors that motivated and unified the Brazilian forces to remove President Goulart, and to retain authority under an unelected president from their own ranks. Chapters that follow explore such themes as the role--so often ascribed as of primary importance--of the ESG as the mentor and initiator of national policymaking under the military regimes, the degree and direction of service and seniority-based divisions due to ideologic beliefs which may have existed in each regime, and the deeper ideologic splits between pro-American moderates and independence-minded authoritarians regarding the nation's needs for industrialization/urbanization and eradication of radical, antiregime insurgencies. Additional chapters take up the five regimes' policies, and the progress made toward national development and industrialization. Finally there is a summarization and postera assessment, aided by the perspective afforded after several years' passage of time. This book should be valuable to researchers and students of Brazilian history and political affairs.