As the novels of Machado de Assis make clear, for most Brazilians the War of Triple Alliance against Paraguay in the 1860s was a remote affair which scarcely impinged on their lives. In this respect the impact of the Paraguayan war on Brazil may be compared with that of the Napoleonic wars on the world of Jane Austen. In Argentina it was a different story. The war with Paraguay produced a sense of national trauma and crisis that makes it not hyperbolic to regard it as Argentina's Vietnam. This article seeks to trace the effect of the bloody conflict with Francisco Solano López on Argentine society. To simplify the analysis, the consequences of the war have been considered below under four headings which do not purport to be exhaustive or mutually exclusive: military, political (i.e., relating to the internal politics of Argentina), economic and international (concerned with Argentina's external relations).