740.0011 European War 1939/26005: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Armour) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:39 p.m.]
2362. I called by appointment on the President this afternoon. It was the first opportunity I had had to speak to him other than on formal occasions. He received me with his customary cordiality and as usual seemed to be in agreement on various points raised. Regarding the war he made the categorical statement that he feels Germans are already beaten. He congratulated me on our success Pacific and also on North African expedition which he fully realized had resulted not only in effective defense of American continent against attack, but had as one of its prime motives freeing France from Nazi domination. In response to my suggestion he said he would take favorable opportunity to make clear this was his feeling. In the meantime he felt Foreign Minister’s message to Secretary of State had made Government’s position clear.
He told me the Government was proceeding vigorously to complete investigation of Axis activities brought to their notice in our memoranda and assured me results would be fully published just as soon as opportunity had been afforded to complete examination of voluminous documents seized, most of them in German. In the meantime he agreed with my suggestion that his Government should proceed promptly to issue communications decree prohibiting use of cipher messages by radio outside of continent.
While previous experience has warned me against accepting such assurances too literally it seems possible that war news has had salutary effect even in these high quarters as it undoubtedly has on certain others hitherto in opposite camp and that we may expect more cooperation on matters mentioned. However, I shall remain skeptical until words have been transformed into action.