710.1012 Anti-War/25: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil (Gibson)
75. Your undated telegram No. 87. You may say to the Brazilian Government that this Government sincerely appreciates the high aims of the Brazilian as well as the Argentine Government in their praiseworthy efforts to work for peace on this continent. In considering action by this Government, however, we have constantly borne in mind the importance of the provisions of the Kellogg-Briand Pact in the conduct of our foreign relations. While public opinion in the United States is slow in accepting any new departure in foreign relations, yet it has now apparently fully accepted the Pact as a prime tenet of American policy. Slowly there is being built up as an outgrowth of the meaning of the Pact a tradition of cooperation, which, while founded on the exercise of the independent judgment of this country, is none the less real. Should this Government now reaffirm the principles of the Pact in other terms or more particularly should it now accept new contractual undertakings on a parallel or slightly divergent course it would only serve, we fear, to confuse public opinion in this country and thereby inevitably prejudice the helpful understanding and support given by public opinion here to the Pact. For the foregoing reasons it appears unwise, from the viewpoint of our foreign policy, for this Government to sign the proposed anti-war treaty.