738.5 MSP/5–2153
Memorandum by George O. Spencer of the Office of Regional American Affairs to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs ( Cabot )1
Subject:
- Inclusion of Haiti in the Grant-Aid Military Assistance Program.
As you are aware, the Haitian Ambassador last week presented us with a note2 requesting that we include Haiti in the grant-aid military assistance program. Several months ago he asked us why Haiti had been excluded and we replied in writing that in choosing countries, the U.S. had to take into consideration the limited U.S. funds available for the program and the military capabilities of individual Latin American countries for making a hemisphere defense contribution. In short, we gave him a polite negative answer. Meanwhile, the Haitian military has been making strong pleas to the Pentagon for a place in the program. The last I heard was that the Pentagon intended to refer the Haitians to the State Department, which it apparently has done.
[Page 1269]I am told by my contacts in the Pentagon that the Navy is the only Service Department having an interest in a Haitian program. However, the other two Services have vetoed the idea of even a Navy program for Haiti each time the question has arisen. I believe, therefore, that we stand virtually no chance of obtaining Pentagon approval short of an appeal by the Under Secretary to the Joint Chiefs during his meeting with them tomorrow.
According to the majority opinion in the Pentagon, the present program has one sole purpose, namely, to obtain from Latin American countries a commitment to prepare military units of a type which would be of practical military assistance to U.S. armed forces in defending the Caribbean area in time of war. The Pentagon view is that countries like Haiti plainly are not capable of preparing such units, even with some U.S. assistance. In short, they haven’t enough trained soldiers for such units or they haven’t the money to spend on material and facilities they would need in addition to the equipment we would provide in the program.
I believe that important political considerations require that we attempt to over-ride the Pentagon thesis on political grounds, in the case of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. While it would be politically desirable to have Haiti in the program, I believe that our reasons are not strong enough to make a persuasive case to the Pentagon. I therefore suggest that we not ask the Under Secretary to urge the Joint Chiefs to include Haiti in the program during his discussions tomorrow, but that we have him devote his efforts to persuading the Pentagon to concur in our proposal regarding Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador—the countries that count most in our plan to deal an effective blow against communism in Guatemala. In the meanwhile, if you concur, I plan to submit the Haitian request formally to the Pentagon at the lower levels, so that we may have something in writing from the Pentagon on which to base a reply to the Haitian Ambassador.3