Office of the Historian

824.00/3170

Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius) to the Secretary of State

[Washington,] May 23, 1944.

Messrs. Berle,82 Long,83 Acheson,84 Hackworth,85 Duggan, Lyon,86 Wendolyn,87 Raynor,88 and myself spent an hour and a half with Ambassador Warren this morning. He gave us a most comprehensive report, and I have asked him to prepare a short summary covering his survey of the Bolivian situation which will be available to you tomorrow morning.

Ambassador Warren has reached the conclusion that immediate recognition by our Government of the present Bolivian Government is the proper course to pursue.

His fundamental reasoning for this conclusion is

1.
The present Bolivian Government has shown, by its acts, to be sympathetic to the Allied cause.
2.
Ambassador Warren believes that the present Bolivian Government is sufficiently in control of the situation in that country to warrant our taking the risk of recognition from that point of view.

E[dward] S[tettinius]
  1. Adolf A. Berle, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State.↩
  2. Breckinridge Long, Assistant Secretary of State.↩
  3. Dean Acheson, Assistant Secretary of State.↩
  4. Green H. Hackworth, Legal Adviser.↩
  5. Cecil B. Lyon, Acting Chief, Division of West Coast Affairs.↩
  6. Eric C. Wendelin, Acting Chief, Division of River Plate Affairs.↩
  7. Hayden Raynor, Assistant to the Under Secretary of State.↩