Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, The American Republics, Volume VIII

810.20 Missions/11–1047

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Special Inter-American Affairs (Dreier)

secret

[ Washington ,] November 10, 1947.

Participants:	ARA—Mr. Daniels
	CPA—Mr. Newbegin
	Colonel Ordway and Lt. Colonel Smith—Army
	IA—Mr. Dreier

Colonel Ordway called Mr. Daniels by arrangement to discuss the specific question of the plans advanced by Colonel Adams, Chief of US Military Mission to Honduras for the training of a group of Honduran Army personnel in parachute jumping, in regard to which the issue liad been raised as to whether the Chief of Diplomatic Mission and the Department could intervene in regard to the nature of the Military Mission’s activities.

Colonel Ordway expressed the desire to reach full agreement with the State Department on this matter and said he was prepared to recognize that the Department could intervene in regard to any aspect of the Mission’s work which it considered involved political considerations, and furthermore that the Department had to be the judge of what was political. He did, however, wish to argue in favor of Colonel Adams’ plan of training Hondurans in parachute jumping.

Mr. Daniels expressed his satisfaction with Colonel Ordway’s views in regard to the role of the State Department in such matters. He pointed out that the Chiefs of Military Mission, according to their instructions, were to be guided by the Chiefs of Diplomatic Mission in their dealings with the officials of the foreign government, and in all matters of political character. He pointed out furthermore that the Mission agreement with Honduras called for the agreement of both the State and War Departments to any changes in the Mission program. Mr. Daniels explained that the extension of the proposed type of training to the Honduran Army would be interpreted in Honduras as an action of the United States to equip the Honduran Army better to control internal situations, since no one would conceive of Honduran parachutists being used in hemisphere defense. He pointed out that under any conditions such an interpretation of a Mission’s activity was undesirable politically, and that it was particularly so this year when political maneuvers are already being undertaken looking toward the election of a successor to President Carías next October.

Colonel Ordway said that he appreciated those views and would be glad to be guided by them. He wishes, however, to point out that in his opinion this type of training had definite military advantages to the United States. He said that in time of war or international emergency it would handicap the United States from a military viewpoint to have revolutions take place in Latin America, and that it was therefore desirable that the armies of Latin American countries be equipped and trained with a view to maintaining civil order and avoiding outbreaks of violence which might hamper the cooperation of the governments in hemisphere defense.

Mr. Daniels challenged this view on the grounds that it could not be assumed that the maintenance of the political status quo in Latin American countries was automatically in the interests of the United States, or that any overturn of an existing government would necessarily lessen the cooperation of established authorities with the United States. However, he pointed out, if it were widely believed that the United States was aiding a military dictatorship to retain its power such a feeling might definitely increase any [anti?] U.S. sentiment and encourage political forces antagonistic to the United States. He recognized, at the same time, that in time of war these problems had to be considered realistically and carefully.¹⁹

[Here follows a summary of suggestions regarding the necessity of writing a more definite policy statement on activities of Military Missions in Latin American countries.]

Mr. Newbegin brought up the question of the request delivered to him this afternoon by Ambassador Cáceres for some military equipment for Honduras.

It was agreed that the note left by the Ambassador²⁰ would be considered by the Department and transmitted to the Department of the Army for consideration.

19. In a memorandum of telephone conversation of December 8, 1947, the Chief of the Division of Central America and Panama Affairs (Newbegin) stated that Colonel Ordway had called him that afternoon concerning a letter which he had sent to Colonel Adams. According to the memorandum, “Colonel Ordway informed him that the parachute training matter could be considered as closed for some time to come. He referred to his conversation here with Colonel Adams in which he had expressed his own personal views as being favorable to the proposal, but said that that was before he had had an opportunity to discuss the matter with State Department officials. He mentioned that political considerations took precedence over all others, and that, since the view of the State Department was that the program should not be put into effect for political reasons, there was nothing further to be said on it.” (815.223/12–847)
20. On November 7 Ambassador Cáceres had presented to Mr. Newbegin a note addressed to Secretary Marshall by the Honduran Secretaries of Foreign Affairs and War, Navy, and Aviation requesting assistance in obtaining certain military supplies, primarily equipment for an infantry battalion and a battery of field artillery. No action was taken on this request during 1947.