817.00/11–1545: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Nicaragua (Warren)
450. Reurtel 703 Nov. 15, Par. 5. You may inform Pres Somoza that you conveyed his statements to Dept as requested. You may add in your discretion that Dept’s policy is still as you have interpreted it in your recent conversations with him and as set forth in a recent [Page 1223] speech by an officer of Dept52 (copy of which has gone forward by air mail) reading in part as follows:
“This doctrine of non-intervention, to which our government is bound by a declaration enjoying the staunch support of the American people and by formal international engagement entered into on their behalf, does not however preclude speaking our own mind on issues. we consider vitally important. It involves no sacrifice of integrity on our part, no surrender of principles, no turning a deaf ear to the voice of liberty raised by any people, anywhere.… It is conceded that some governments in this hemisphere have not come into power through, democratic processes. Some have maintained their positions through, other than constitutional means, or without the consent of the governed.
We do not intend to intervene to impose democracy. The peoples of those countries are primarily responsible. But we obviously feel a warmer friendship for and a greater desire to cooperate with those governments that rest on the periodically and freely expressed endorsement of the governed.… The policy of non-intervention does not, as the Secretary of State declared three weeks ago,53 imply the approval of local tyranny.”