Editorial Note
In a memorandum of conversation summarizing the Secretary’s staff meeting, held on July 7, 1954, at 9:15 a.m. in the Secretary’s office, Walter K. Scott recorded, inter alia, the following exchanges:
“3. Guatemala.
“Mr. Murphy questioned whether or not Ambassador Peurifoy should now be transferred from Guatemala inasmuch as the situation had improved so. Another Ambassador not so involved might be better now.
“Mr. Holland stated that he would question the timing now—that Ambassador Peurifoy could be moved at a later time; he suggested the first of the year, but that transfer at an earlier date would bring about unnecessary criticism that the United States had placed him there only to foment revolution.
“The Under Secretary stated that Ambassador Peurifoy had mentioned to him that if the Guatemalan situation were cleared up he would like a more important post. The Under Secretary stated that he felt he deserved something better but that Mr. Holland was right—that any transfer should be delayed until later in the year.
“Mr. Holland mentioned that he was trying to work out possible courses of U.S. action to prevent Guatemala from reverting to a dictatorship. He felt that if this happened we would suffer serious propaganda loss throughout the Americas. He hoped to have recommendations to the Secretary by tomorrow.
“Replying to the Secretary’s inquiry, Mr. Holland covered the various documents under preparation for release on the Guatemalan incident. They included a chronology of events in Guatemala since 1944 presently being drawn up from Guatemalan Government documents made available to us by the military Junta. He also mentioned that a propaganda booklet was under preparation on the Guatemalan incident for release to the Other Americas.
“4. British White Paper.
“Mr. Holland reported that the British are preparing a ‘White Paper’ on our actions in the United Nations on the Guatemalan incident. It was pointed out that this probably developed from debate in Parliament which required a government report. The Secretary stated that Eden had mentioned to him the possibility of the Government coming under serious attack over the incident. The Secretary stated that the matter was of serious moment to the United Nations, particularly as it was a precedent for requests in the future from other regional organizations to handle similar matters. He felt that we would not like an incident in the Arab world to be handled by the irresponsible Arab League rather than the United Nations.
[Page 1209]“The Secretary approved Mr. Merchant’s office handling the contact with the British over this matter, working with L, UNA and ARA.
“Mr. Phleger stated that we should point out to the British that at Caracas we opposed consideration of the item on European colonies in the Americas on the basis that such a matter should be considered in the United Nations rather than in the Association [Organization] of American States, inasmuch as it involved countries outside the Association. He felt that our action in the United Nations vis-á-vis Guatemala was the other side of this coin and that the British could not have our support both ways.” (Secretary’s Staff Meetings, lot 63 D 75)
Secretary Dulles presided at the meeting, which was attended by 18 other participants.