358. Letter From the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Murphy) to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Gray)1
Dear Gordon: Our Ambassador to Brazil concluded on January 21 an Agreement with the Brazilian Government which will permit the Department of the Air Force to proceed with the construction and operation of a guided missile station on the Island of Fernando de Noronha. During the negotiation of this Agreement the Brazilian Government made clear that it is dissatisfied with the grant military assistance that the United States has provided and that it wants a substantial increase in such assistance to assist Brazil in carrying out commitments which it made to the United States to participate in the defense of the Hemisphere. This became the key issue in the negotiations. Although we successfully resisted making any commitment to provide additional military equipment, we did commit the United States to undertake immediately with the Brazilian Government an examination of the extent of the increased responsibilities which Brazil considered it assumed by concluding the Agreement. Our Ambassador informed the Brazilian Government on January 21 that the United States would welcome a meeting at an early date to commence this examination.
[Page 750]It is of utmost importance that we take prompt and effective steps to assuage the strong feelings that were revealed during the negotiations with respect to our military relations with Brazil. This is essential if the Guided Missile Agreement is to be implemented in a cooperative and harmonious manner and if we are to secure Brazilian agreement to our other military requirements for which our Ambassador is negotiating. I do not wish to imply that I agree with the Brazilian criticisms of our military assistance program, but we must conduct our relations with Brazil in the knowledge that Brazilian officials hold such strong views.
I was pleased to learn that our delegation to the Joint Brazil–United States Military Commission has already been instructed to undertake exploratory discussions with their Brazilian counterparts with a view to obtaining a more precise statement from the Brazilians as to what they consider their responsibilities to be and what units they require to discharge them. Having closely followed this matter as it developed over the last several months, I believe that we should take the following additional steps promptly:
- 1.
- Expedite the delivery of equipment which has been approved for Brazil under the military assistance program.
- 2.
- Assign to Brazil a higher priority for military equipment so that when equipment is approved it will be delivered in a reasonably prompt manner.
- 3.
- Review the role we desire to have Brazil perform in Hemisphere defense and revise existing military understandings to conform to that role.
- 4.
- Determine the units which Brazil requires to perform this defense role and reach agreement with Brazil as to how the United States plans to assist in providing equipment for those units.
I believe if we take the foregoing steps immediately we can reach a clear and frank understanding with Brazil on defense arrangements and thereby do much to dissipate the strong feelings which exist. Any delay in coming to such an understanding with the Brazilians would, of course, make the ultimate solution of our problem more difficult.
I should be happy to discuss this matter with you if you so desire and wish to assure you that Mr. Rubottom and his staff are prepared to cooperate in every way possible in our common objective of restoring a high level of cooperation and confidence to our relations with Brazil.
Sincerely yours,