710 Consultation 4/9–847
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chairman of the United States Delegation (Marshall), Held August 22, 1947, 11: 45 a.m.
| Participants: | Sr. Edmé Manigat, Foreign Minister of Haiti |
| Secretary Marshall | |
| Colonel Antoine Levelt20 | |
| Major Vernon A. Walters |
After the customary exchange of greetings, Dr. Manigat stated that he wished to compliment me on my speech.21 I thanked him and asked if he had any new points of view to express. He asked whether I was referring to Haiti or to the Conference and I indicated that I was referring to the latter. He stated that Haiti did not have any special point to bring up and was confident that there would be no serious obstacles to the conclusion of the treaty.
I spoke of the difficulty of drawing a line between aggression from within the continent and from without. I cited Hungary as a case in point where a minority of some 10% of the population had taken over the government, and that such an occurrence might be repeated on the American continent and it was almost impossible to differentiate between this type of aggression and open aggression from an extra-continental source. Dr. Manigat replied that they had been inclined to consider some difference because Haiti felt that an extra-continental aggression might be less likely to disrupt the solidarity of the hemisphere than an intra-continental attack. For this reason they had been weighing the Venezuelan proposal,22 but he added that in view of the [Page 77] thoughts I had expressed the Haitian delegation was prepared to abandon support for the Venezuelan proposal, and that he was in complete agreement that no distinction should be made. He expressed confidence in the success of the Conference in drafting the treaty.
I asked Dr. Manigat whether he had any other views he would like to express and he stated that he did not. He thanked me for my visit as I was taking my leave.