810.20 Defense/6–1146
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for American Republic Affairs (Braden)44
The documents submitted by General von der Becke through General Eisenhower contain only information which was already known to the Department and which for the most part is public knowledge in Argentina. The nature of this information is summarized in the underlying memorandum.45 The information now presented essentially [Page 254] substantiates the position which we have taken with regard to Argentine non-compliance:
- 1)
- Concerning enemy property the Argentine Government has not nationalized a single enemy concern and has completed the liquidation of only two insignificant firms. (We had previously understood this figure to be four.) Title to the remaining enemy property, only a part of which is even under Argentine control, remains with the enemy.
- 2)
- Concerning enemy persons the Argentine Government has not deported the most dangerous persons. Of the list of persons recommended for deportation in January, a list which was restricted to 100 because of the limited capacity of the repatriation ship, only 23 have been deported. As regards an additional 40 individuals mentioned by General von der Becke, only 9 have been deported. Ambassador Messersmith on June 1 submitted to the Argentine Foreign Office a list of 619 additional persons for repatriation, none of which is known to have been repatriated.
In explaining Argentina’s failure to comply, General von der Becke mentioned legal obstacles. Similar legal obstacles appeared in every American republic including the United States. A study is presently being made of these legal obstacles in Argentina: their nature, seriousness, and means of overcoming them. There is reason to believe that these legal obstacles might, if the Argentine Government were disposed to take vigorous and sustained action, be overcome with respect to the remaining enemy properties and persons—much as they were overcome in the other American republics and as Argentina has herself overcome some of them in specific instances involving both properties and persons.
As General Eisenhower indicated to General von der Becke, the normal means of resolving the remaining questions concerning performance, both that pertaining to the legal obstacles and that having to do with specific persons and business enterprises, should be discussed and resolved by the Argentine Foreign Office and the American Embassy at Buenos Aires.