Roberto Marcelo Levingston

Levingston was born on 10 January 1920 in San Luis Province.^[6] He was the son of Guillermo David Levingston Sierralta and Carmen Laborda Guiñazú.^[7][8] After completing his secondary studies, Levingston attended the Colegio Militar de la Nación starting in 1938, where he graduated from in 1941.^[6] He chose to pursue the branch of cavalry officer at the college, and upon graduating became a second lieutenant of cavalry.^[9] In January 1948 he obtained the rank of captain after having previously been promoted to first lieutenant.^[10]

Levingston's military expertise included intelligence and counterinsurgency, and he took the presidency of Argentina on 18 June 1970, in a military coup engineered by commander-in-chief Alejandro Lanusse that deposed Juan Carlos Onganía over his ineffective response to the Montoneros and other guerillas.^[5] Lanusse later called Levingston's appointment as a "barbarity" while defending the decision at the time, saying that "it was done so as to avoid what had been happening" under Onganía.^[11]

His regime was marked by a protectionist economic policy that did little to overcome the inflation and recession that the country was undergoing at the time,^[4] and by the imposition of the death penalty against terrorists and kidnappers.^[5] In response to renewed anti-government rioting in Córdoba, the labor crisis under his leadership, and his attempt to dismiss Lanusse, he was deposed on 21 March 1971, by another military junta led by Lanusse.^[4][5][12]

He died on 17 June 2015, at the age of 95.^[6] He is the longest-lived President of Argentina.^[13]

In 1943, Levingston married Bety Nelly Andrés and had two sons and one daughter.^[2]

Levingston's cabinet underwent several changes during his brief presidency, with key ministerial positions experiencing turnover particularly in October 1970.