824.00/908
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of the American Republics ( Duggan ) to the Legal Adviser ( Hackworth )
Mr. Hackworth: With further reference to our exchange of memoranda concerning recognition and at the risk of imposing a hypothetical question, may I inquire your opinion as to whether an act or a series of acts as set forth in the last page of your memorandum of May 3 would be necessary in case a president were not only to dismiss the congress and annul the constitution, but to set up an entirely new regime upon totally different concepts.
[Page 307]In other words, what I am striving to find out is whether in case of a change in regime which, while not changing the president, resulted in a switch let us say from a democratic government to a totalitarian government, would recognition be necessary or unnecessary? Is there a line that can be drawn between changes in government which appear to be a continuation of the previous government and a change of government in which, while the president may remain the same, the whole bases of the political, economic and social structure of the country are altered?