Office of the Historian

835.34/12–1346

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of River Plate Affairs (Lyon)

[Washington,] December 13, 1946.

Mr. R. F. Willey, representative of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, having been referred to me by Mr. Dreier,47 IA, telephoned me [Page 339] and said that the Bethlehem Steel Corporation had been requested by the Argentine Government to pass bids on the following Naval Ships:

  • 1 cruiser
  • 4 destroyers (of the Cleveland class)
  • 3 submarines (of Italian design)
  • 1 tanker (small)
  • 1 troop ship
  • 1 escort carrier
  • 1 repair ship

Mr. Willey wanted to know what the Department’s views on this were. I explained briefly to him our policy vis-à-vis Argentina and said that at present we are opposed to furnishing armaments to Argentina, that the above ships were obviously armaments, and that therefore, our position would be against furnishing these ships. Mr. Willey said that was the answer he had expected to receive, that he had conferred with the Navy Department which had referred him to us. Mr. Willey said that if this was the position our Government was taking, and that no other American firms would be able to obtain export licenses for armaments for these ships, he was going to tell his people that it would be impossible to complete bids on these ships within sixty days which was one of the requirements.

I explained to Mr. Willey that we had a “gentlemen’s agreement” with Great Britain, and consequently, she wouldn’t be able to build these ships, and asked whether any country would be able to. He said that Italy might, but that she didn’t have the materials, and it would take five or six years at least. I stated that I didn’t know what our policy was, but that I couldn’t believe that we and the British would sit back and allow Italy to furnish these ships to Argentina. Mr. Willey’s answer was “we won’t.”

Mr. Willey said he couldn’t imagine what Argentina wanted all these ships for, and said that his Company did not need business badly enough to go against the wishes of the U.S. Government in this matter.

  1. John C. Dreier, Acting Chief of the Division of Special Inter-American Affairs.↩