710. Consultation 4/6–2547
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Special Inter-American Affairs (Dreier)8
In submitting the attached draft telegrams9 concerning steps taken to assure agreement in advance on the principles to be contained in the Rio Treaty, I should like to caution against any great optimism that these exchanges of views will in fact provide much assurance as to the easy conclusion of the conference.
First, some of the main problems to be expected at the conference are not touched upon: i.e. an anti-Communist pact, which may very likely be proposed by Argentina or another Latin American country; or military provisions, such as establishment of a permanent military agency, which has already been suggested by General Von der Becke.10
Second, in regard to the principles which are referred to in these telegrams, what is needed at this stage of negotiations is agreement on words, not principles. Agreement “in principle” to the inclusion in the treaty of a provision for concrete action in event of armed attack does not make the difficult problem of wording such a provision much easier. You may recall that the wording of the United States draft [Page 6] was finally fixed only after lengthy discussions by representatives of the State, War and Navy Departments.
Finally, this virtual insistence upon acceptance of the United States draft can be expected to arouse no enthusiasm in some Latin American quarters.
- Addressed to the Director of the Office of American Republic Affairs (Briggs); the Assistant Secretaries of State for American Republic Affairs and for Political Affairs (Braden and Armour); and the Under Secretary of State (Acheson).↩
- Not printed.↩
- Gen. Carlos Von der Becke, Adviser to the Argentine delegation.↩