123: Telegram

The Ambassador in Argentina (Braden) to the Secretary of State

1595. Handbills flooding streets late last night make direct and personal attack on me.

One is form of circus announcement stating that cowboy Braden following great success in Cuba and Guatemala will make debut; [Page 397] further attractions are described as Government tamers, press lassoers, traitor rodeos. Another declares “Lincoln and Washington have nothing to do with cowboy Braden, tamer of South American Governments. The great Roosevelt would have saved himself the trouble of sending us a “cowboy” because he knew the cowboy was not a match for the “gauehos”. A third reads as follows: “Al Capone94 in Buenos Aires? Unconfirmed reports lead one to suppose that a personage similar to Capone is operating in this Criolla City of Buenos Aires trying to blackmail the country. The Círculo de La Prensa, the rural society and stock exchange are helping him. Beware note: details at the Boston Bank.”

A fourth reads “do you know that cowboy Braden told the entire Diplomatic Corps that he was going to ‘tame’ in one month the country of the Argentines putting it in his pocket like the swarthy Batista?95 Look out for flying hoofs, boys.[”]

A further report follows.

Braden
  1. Chicago gangster leader.
  2. Fulgencio Batista, President of Cuba.