Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, The American Republics, Volume IV

Miller files, lot 53 D 26, “Peru”

The Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Miller) to the Ambassador in Peru (Tittmann)¹

secret

[Washington,] July 31, 1952.

Dear Harold: We have been looking further into President Odría’s suggestion described in your letter of July 21² that a United States Air Force officer be made Chief of Staff of the Peruvian Air Force.

An initial question was whether this would be legally possible, in view of the Constitutional prohibition against acceptance of office from a foreign state without the consent of Congress. The Defense Department lawyers would only give us a very informal reading to the effect that it might be possible to interpret some of the legislation authorizing detail of military personnel to assist other governments (which is the basis for our Mission Program in Latin America) in a manner which would permit such an assignment, but only under conditions which would appear to be completely impracticable, if not impossible, to meet. For example, the office of the Department of Defense’s legal counsel advises informally that it would be necessary that there be a finding by the President that such transfer would be in the national interest and it would also be necessary that the freedom of the individual concerned to take orders from the foreign government would be strictly limited to certain specific subjects. Furthermore, it would be necessary for the other government to waive any requirement that an oath to that government be taken, which would seem to affect any command functions he might need. It appears certain that the necessary steps could not be taken unless it were deemed to be of overriding importance to the national interest, a condition which, in my opinion, the present proposal does not meet. None of those with whom we discussed this matter either in State or Defense have been able to recall any instance in which such an assignment has been made, except under war conditions.

Whatever may be the legal or administrative technicalities, however, it seems to me that there are extremely important policy reasons why it would not be desirable for a United States officer to assume such a command position. To whatever extent we may sympathize with the President’s desire to clean up a messy situation, and however valuable such rehabilitation would be in improving Peru’s hemisphere defense capabilities, there is great danger that even the most discreet person in such a position would be precipitated into internal quarrels and conflicts against his will. An attempt to extricate himself after the trouble had broken out, in accordance with Odría’s suggestion, would simply add to his difficulties. Even more important, however, I believe that putting a United States officer in such a command postion would immediately be taken elsewhere, if not in Peru, as confirmation of the charge that our military policy, particularly the grant-aid program, has the ultimate objective of putting Latin American armed forces under United States command. This could have a severely adverse effect upon our whole program.

On the basis of the information obtained thus far, I believe it would be well to emphasize the technical and administrative obstacles to such a proposal, rather than any strictly legal ones, but that it should also be frankly pointed out that the exercise of command functions by a United States officer, even if it were possible or practicable, would pose very serious policy problems, and would not, in our view, be in the best interests either of the United States or Peru. This could be coupled with an indication that we would be prepared to consider what might be done by way of special augmentation of the Air Force Mission aimed at dealing with specific difficulties in the Peruvian Air Force but only in a strictly advisory capacity. It is possible that some arrangement might be worked our under which we could thus assist the Peruvians in doing what they should be able to do themselves.

With reference to the second part of the proposal (which Colonel Stroh³ does not believe necessary)—that a member of the Mission be made director of the Air Force school—there appears to be precedent for such an arrangement in El Salvador and perhaps in Brazil. This might require an amendment of the existing Mission Agreement⁴ but apparently it could be done, provided, I assume, that no command function or oath of allegiance is involved.

Sincerely yours,

Edward G. Miller, Jr.

1. Drafted by Mr. Jamison.
2. Not found in Department of State files.
3. Claire Stroh, Chief, U.S. Air Force Mission in Peru.
4. Reference is to the Military Aviation Mission Agreement signed at Washington, Oct. 7, 1946, and entered into force on the same date, as amended and extended; for text, see TIAS No. 1562, or 61 Stat. (pt. 3) 2398.