710.Consultation 3/598: Telegram
The American Representative (Welles) to President Roosevelt
48. I am sure you will understand my feeling of amazement and complete confusion as a result of my conversation with the Secretary of State last night.75
In the last conversation which I had with you the night before I left for Rio, we agreed that the two main objectives at the Conference from the standpoint of our own Government should be the breaking of political, commercial, and financial relations between the Axis Powers and the American Republics which had not yet taken such action, and likewise the making of every effort to prevent the breakdown of the unity of the hemisphere for the creation of which your own Administration is solely responsible.
[Page 37]During the nearly 2 weeks that I have been here I have worked night and day to attain these objectives. As you remember, an agreement was reached with the Argentine Foreign Minister on January 21 upon the text of a joint declaration for the breaking of relations which contained four articles. The full text as then agreed upon reads as follows:
[Here follows text of draft resolution quoted in telegram No. 39, January 22, 9 a.m., from Mr. Welles, page 32.]
As a result of the unwillingness of the Acting President of Argentina to confirm the agreement previously reached by the Argentine Foreign Minister on January 21 and which agreement the latter had informed us all he was fully authorized to make, the Conference was thrown into a state verging upon chaos on January 22 and 23.
During that period both President Vargas and Aranha told me of their tremendous concern at the possibility of a rupture between Brazil and Argentina in view of the fact that Brazil’s traditional friendship with Chile, as a counterpoise to Argentina, had practically vanished as a result of the dubious character of the present Government of Chile. They reaffirmed their decision to go one hundred percent with the United States, but they urged that if possible Brazil should not be forced to take an open attitude of antagonism to Argentina. Exactly the same pleas were made to me by the Uruguayan and Bolivian Foreign Ministers. The joint opinion of all of them was that if Argentina and Chile now broke with the other American Republics, it would be primarily Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia that would suffer. If a rupture took place in the American family of nations, Argentina and Chile would become the foci of Axis agents and of subversive activities directed primarily against neighboring countries with the very great probability that the Brazilian Army would view such a situation with the utmost alarm and probable unrest on account of its belief that the Argentine Army is dominated to a considerable extent by German influence.
It seemed to me, therefore, in the highest interest of our own country, that I should make every effort to preserve unity and yet at the same time achieve the objectives upon which you and I agreed.
In my telegram No. 45, January 23, 11 p.m., I reported to the Secretary of State the events of yesterday and the exact text of the agreement for the rupture of relations as finally approved unanimously by all of the Foreign Ministers. You will see from this telegram that articles 1, 2, and 4 are practically left unchanged except for a slight strengthening of the phraseology employed in article 2.
The only other remaining article, No. 3 reads as follows:
“The American Republics consequently, following the procedure established by their own laws within the position and circumstances of each country in the actual continental conflict, recommend the [Page 38] rupture of their diplomatic relations with Japan, Germany and Italy since the first of these states has attacked and the other two have declared war upon an American country.”
In this article for the first time, notwithstanding recent earlier official declarations to the contrary by the Acting President of Argentina and by the Chilean Government, both Argentina and Chile publicly go on record as recommending to all of the American Republics, including themselves, the breaking of diplomatic relations with the Axis Powers. In addition to that, the reason for such action is specifically declared to be the attack upon the United States, and finally, the conflict involving the Americas has now for the first time officially been declared to be “continental.” In the considered judgment of Aranha, of the Foreign Minister of Mexico, of the Foreign Minister of Peru, of the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, and of the chiefs of delegation of Colombia, Cuba, and Bolivia, this text is stronger, more satisfactory, and has less reservations and weasel words than the text agreed upon on January 21.
This fundamental issue has consequently been raised: would it have been better for 19 Republics, including the United States, to announce that the American Republics “should not continue” diplomatic relations with the Axis Powers, in the full knowledge that the united American front would thereby be broken and that Argentina and Chile would in all likelihood become hotbeds for Axis activities; or for the United States in conjunction with every other American Republic to agree upon the text set forth above by which all of the American Republics jointly recommend the severance of their diplomatic relations with the Axis Powers.
The Brazilian press, which is not today controlled, has unanimously proclaimed the agreement reached as a triumph. Every delegate and Foreign Minister with whom I have spoken last night and this morning likewise shares this point of view. If the United States had taken the opposite course and Argentina and Chile had finally been forced out of the united line-up, before this Conference had terminated the United States would have been attacked from one end of the continent to the other for having broken the united American front and for having through undue pressure tried to force its own views upon Argentina and Chile in order to save American skins. I think you will likewise agree that nothing would have given greater satisfaction to the Axis Powers themselves than to be able to announce to the rest of the world that they had succeeded in breaking up the solidarity of the American Republics.
I fully share the point of view you yourself expressed to me last night and that is that immediate implementation in the sense of action is required in order to counteract the alleged mistaken press comments which have been reported, Aranha has authorized me [Page 39] specifically to state to you by authorization of President Vargas that at the close of the session of the Conference on the afternoon of Monday, January 26, he will announce in the name of the Government of Brazil the severance of relations between Brazil and the Axis Powers. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay who had intended to make that announcement today has decided likewise to withhold the announcement of Uruguayan rupture of relations until the closing session of the Conference because of the increased effect that such an announcement would have there.
[The representative from] Paraguay has just informed me he has requested similar instructions. Both Ecuador and Bolivia with full authorization have given me assurances to the same effect.
May I say to you again how deeply grateful I am for what you said last night.76 In full accord with the policy you approved, what we have achieved, in my personal judgment, is a result which is the safest for the interests of our own country. I have kept the Secretary of State fully informed as a review of the telegrams I have sent him since my arrival in Rio will demonstrate. It has been manifestly impossible for me in the kind of constant turmoil and continuous conferences which a meeting of this kind inevitably implies, to request prior authorization for agreeing to every word. I took it for granted that so long as the desired objectives were attained and so long as the policy you and the Secretary of State had approved was carried out, I was entitled to have sufficient confidence from the Secretary of State to make it possible for me within those bounds to agree upon texts.
In conclusion I am glad to add that at this morning’s session the text of the resolution for the severance of commercial and financial relations as drafted in Washington was approved in toto save for colorless reservations by Argentina and Chile. This unanimous inter-American agreement will make as water-tight as possible [the] cutting off of all commercial and financial relations between the American Republics and the Axis Powers.
- No record of conversation found in Department files. In his Memoirs (vol. ii, pp. 1148–1149), Secretary Hull described this telephone conversation, indicating his feeling that the Under Secretary had changed the Department’s policy without consulting the Secretary, and that the escape clause to which the Under Secretary had agreed was a surrender to Argentina.↩
- According to Secretary Hull’s account in his Memoirs, the President interrupted the conversation between the Secretary and the Under Secretary to state that a decision had been made, and that, with the Conference in the act of adjourning, reconsideration was not feasible.↩