835.00/10–345: Telegram
The Chargé in Argentina (Cabot) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12:30 p.m.]
2397. Embtel 2379, Oct. I.52 My talk with the Minister of Interior53 was long and unsatisfactory. His theme song was “why can’t we [Page 480] be friends”, but inasmuch as he insisted upon doing most of the talking I found it impossible to give him a complete answer.
He began by saying that the Continent, including Argentina and U.S. must stand together, that a great danger hangs over all of us, to wit, communism; that it was sweeping all of Europe and that only a united America could prevent its spread to this hemisphere. I pointed out that our principal concern at the moment was Nazi totalitarianism. He then referred to the Castillo govt, as Nazi and said that revolutionary Govt, had been gradually getting rid of Nazis. After a long dissertation from him on recent Argentine political history we discussed at some length Argentine fulfillment of her pledges to extirpate Nazi activities in this country. He insisted that Govt, was moving ahead rapidly as possible although I cited names, facts, and dates to show the contrary. He promised full cooperation in extirpating Nazi activities so I plan to send some more notes at early date.
Quijano then asked why we were restricting shipments of coal, oil, and tires needed to transport food for starving Europeans. I pointed to agreements made by McClintock54 and to sacrifices we were making to this end.
I had little chance to mention internal political developments. At one point he claimed that political arrests in past week had not exceeded 400. He insisted that Govt, would carry out pledge of free elections and spoke of the irony that he should be considered Fascist while conservatives like Saavedra Lamas were considered democratic.
To my mind most significant feature of talk was evidence of close cooperation between Perón and Vargas55 Regimes. Interview was, of course, arranged by Brazilian Ambassador56 who although he played conciliatory role frequently helped Quijano out. I found most significant Quijano’s statement that the reason why Vargas and Perón regimes felt so close to each other was because they were facing similar problems in similar manner.