111.12 Braden, Spruille/11–1946
The Ambassador in Argentina (Messersmith) to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I am sure I need not tell you that I have given very considerable thought to your personal letter of October 29, to which I replied very briefly in my personal letter to you of November 6,42 your letter having reached me that morning. I cannot escape the conclusion, after all the thought I have given to your letter, that there must be some very serious misunderstandings in your mind, and possibly in that of the President, with regard to my actuation and my attitudes. How these misunderstandings could have arisen I am not able to say but that they exist there seems to be little doubt.
From the point of view of the position with which I have been entrusted [Page 334] here by you and the President this is, of course, an unhappy and undesirable situation, because if our relations with the Argentine and with the other American republics do not have the importance which I believe they have, and which opinion I believe you and the President share, then there is little reason for me to come here to undertake the task entrusted to me. It is this phase of the problem which gives me the greater concern and which leads me to write you at this time further.
From the purely personal point of view I am, of course, deeply distressed, as I have been in the Foreign Service for thirty-three years and during that time I have, I believe, given myself as unselfishly and as fully to the interests of our Government as anyone could possibly do with the capacities which he may have. During all of that time I do not believe that my loyalty, sincerity and correctness of actuation have ever been questioned and I think the record will show and does show that my actuation at every post with which I have been entrusted has been constructive.
Therefore, from both the official and personal point of view, I am deeply distressed that what I am sure are certain misunderstandings exist. There is much that I could say in this letter from the personal point of view but I have not been accustomed to consider these personal factors in connection with my work and I do not intend to occupy your time with any consideration of personal aspects in this letter. As I said in my letter of November 6, I am confident that when we have an opportunity to see each other I can in five minutes clear up any of these misunderstandings which exist with regard to my actuation.
However, from the point of view of the mission with which I have been entrusted I must write you briefly with regard to this problem which we have with respect to the Argentine and in a measure with some of the other American republics. My stay here of now almost six months has convinced me more than ever of the importance of our putting our whole house in the Americas in order, which involves the reestablishment of normal relations with the Argentine and this latter involving by the Argentine the reasonable fulfillment of her commitments. I am not accustomed to overestimate situations nor to overestimate the results which may have been achieved through any of my own efforts but I do know that since I came here a very great change has taken place in the Argentine, in the Argentine Government as well as among thoughtful persons here. I know that a great deal of progress has been made in laying the basis of better understanding and more full collaboration by the Argentine in the American picture. There are steps still to be taken by the Argentine Government and these I am confident will be taken in a measure which you and the President and the American public will find entirely adequate and satisfactory. I have endeavored to explain in my letters to you, [Page 335] and of course more fully in my despatches to the Department, what the difficulties are which have to be overcome by the Argentine Government in carrying through these commitments. These difficulties have been so real that it is difficult to make them understood, even in the most complete reports, at this distance.
You will recall that in a previous letter I indicated to you that I thought it would be desirable for me to make a trip home, but that in some ways I preferred not to make the trip. One of the reasons I felt I should not make the trip was that I thought the long air trip might aggravate my stomach ailment, but happily I have so much improved that I am prepared to make the trip. The other reason I did not wish to take it was that I thought it might arouse speculation in the press of various kinds which might not be helpful.
I have given our whole problem very careful review and I have come to the very definite conclusion that it would be desirable for me to make a trip home so as to have an opportunity to talk with you about certain major aspects of this whole situation, for I feel that I need to discuss it with you, and certain aspects thereof with officers of the Department. As you say, and very properly so, the decisions in this matter of the Argentine will be made by you, but that you intend to consult the President, and I am inclined to think that it would be very helpful if after having had a talk with you at home we might together have a talk with the President, and in order that there may be no misunderstandings with respect to my attitude in this matter I would not see any reason why Mr. Braden, as the Assistant Secretary in direct charge of our relations with the American republics, should not be present at such a conversation.43
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With all good wishes [etc.]
- Neither printed.↩
- The Ambassador indicated in telegram 2541, December 18, 1946, that he planned to leave Buenos Aires, December 20 and, according to a letter from the Secretary of State to the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy Department, dated December 26, 1946, he planned to enter a hospital for an examination (123 Messersmith, George S.).↩