711.3227/70: Telegram

The Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

1525. As I have frequently reported, President Vargas has consistently contended that the Brazilian interest in an agreement having to do with the air bases (aside from being agreeable to the United States) was a security one. By security he means some sort of a tie with the United States: I repeat, with the United States—not with the Spanish-American countries; and the stronger the better. That is why Aranha44 was so insistent on even stronger wording under the [Page 560] fourth and last whereases. (As I said in my telegram No. 1499 of April 24, 11 a.m.,45 we persuaded him to water down his original language, as you have noted, we kept it out of the body of the agreement: obviously we believed that the present wording could not be interpreted as raising “suspicions of secret commitments.”)46 We realize that the agreement or at least the body thereof or a summary will probably one day be subjected to scrutiny.

Vargas and his service Ministers are interested also in “other agreements”: What they mean by other agreements is (in line with the recent published statement of the Subcommittee for Naval Affairs) letting Brazil have naval vessels after the war.

In other words, if we are not prepared at least to go through motions sympathetic to Vargas’ desires, I do not believe there is much chance of concluding this agreement. I do not mean to say the present wording of the fourth and last whereases is infallible but I do mean to say that Vargas and his service Ministers will be put out if they are changed and very much put out if they do not obtain something at least as desirable from their point of view.

I do not mean to imply that Brazil would be opposed to a “general security arrangement” but I do mean to imply very clearly that they would not want to connect it in any way with an air base agreement.

You have probably noted in my telegram No. 1523 of April 25, 11 a.m.,45 that as far as the Brazilian public is concerned, it is not getting any easier day by day for President Vargas to put through any agreement at all.

Caffery
  1. Oswaldo Aranha, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
  2. Not printed.
  3. The Ambassador reported that President Vargas would not oppose publication of the agreement, or a summary of it.
  4. Not printed.