[3] During the dictatorship of Augusto B. Leguía, the persecution for the political activities of his father Rafael and his uncle Víctor Andrés Belaúnde prompted the family to move to France in 1924, where Fernando attended high school and received his initial University education in engineering.

In 1937, he started a magazine called El Arquitecto Peruano ("Peruvian Architect"), which dealt with interior design, general urbanism and housing problems the country was facing.

Belaúnde returned to the political arena in 1956, when the outgoing Odría dictatorship called for elections and he led the slate submitted by the "National Front of Democratic Youth", an organization formed by reform-minded university students, some of which had studied under him; his principled support for the La Prensa newspaper, which had been closed down by the dictatorship in early 1956, had prompted the leadership of the National Front to approach him as to lead its slate.

He gained notoriety on June 1 of the same year when, after the national election board refused to accept his candidacy filing, he led a massive protest that became known as the "manguerazo" or "hosedown" from the powerful water cannons used by the police to repress the demonstrators.

The government capitulated, and the striking image of Belaúnde walking by himself with the flag was featured by the news magazine Caretas the following day, in an article entitled "Así Nacen Los Líderes" ("This is how Leaders are Born").

The imprisonment lasted 12 days, during which Belaúnde engaged in a failed attempt to escape by swimming to freedom; the Prado government, facing unrelenting public pressure, was forced to release him and drop all charges.

[2] These included the Carretera Marginal de la Selva, a highway linking Chiclayo on the Pacific coast with then isolated northern regions of Amazonas and San Martín.

Legal recognition was also given to hundreds of indigenous Indian communities,[6] the hospital network was expanded into uncovered areas,[7] and improvements were made in social security coverage.

However, widespread anger about Belaúnde's decision to pay the Standard Oil compensation for handing over the installation to Peru forced his cabinet to resign on October 1.

[9] Several days after the Standard Oil controversy, Belaúnde was removed from office by a military coup led by general Juan Velasco Alvarado, who would go on to become dictator of Peru for seven years.

[10] Meanwhile the military regime established by General Velasco instituted sweeping but ill-fated reforms, primarily the nationalization of the oil industry and the redistribution of land from owners of large holdings to the campesinos of Peru.

Belaúnde's government proposed a peace settlement between the two countries, but the Argentine military junta rejected it[11][12] and the British launched an attack on the Argentinian forces deployed around the islands.

In domestic policy, he continued with many of the projects that were planned during his first term, including the completion of what is considered his most important legacy, the Carretera Marginal de la Selva, a much-needed roadway linking Chiclayo on the Pacific coast with then isolated northern regions of Amazonas and San Martín.