835.00/2–1146: Airgram

The Ambassador in El Salvador ( Simmons ) to the Secretary of State

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A–33. I called upon the Foreign Minister this afternoon and delivered to him a note, with enclosed memoranda, covering the substance of the Department’s circular telegram of February 9, 5 p.m., concerning the document to be delivered to the Latin American Chiefs of Mission in Washington this afternoon, demonstrating Nazi complicity and conspiracy on the part of Argentina.

Dr. Escobar Serrano was greatly impressed by the overwhelming mass of evidence which has now been sifted and which apparently [Page 206] leads to conclusions extremely derogatory to the present military regime in Argentina, involving the latter as it does in a definite plot for giving positive aid to the enemy and for undermining the inter-American system.

Dr. Escobar Serrano assured me of his complete concurrence in the belief that the present regime in Argentina is unworthy of trust and confidence and that a military assistance treaty should not be signed with that regime. He said that the Salvadoran Government wishes, in this and other questions affecting Western Hemisphere solidarity, to be guided by our leadership. He said that he is anxious to receive the actual document mentioned, and wishes to give it the most careful study upon receipt. He expressed admiration for our courageous attitude in this matter, adding that the only question in his mind was whether we had given full consideration to the possibility that such action might possibly result in cementing even the opposition elements in Argentina into some form of national unity greater than that now existing.

He said that he agreed entirely with our position and was only raising this question in the thought that we had doubtless considered it already and that the reasons for our taking the present strong action in revealing Argentina’s recent unsavory record were fully justified.

Simmons