52. Memorandum on Substance of Discussions of Department of State–Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting, the Pentagon, Washington, August 30, 1957, 11:30 a.m.1
[Here follow a list of those present (27) and discussion of agenda item 1, the Trinidad Naval Base. The Department of Defense was represented by 17 officers, the Department of State by 9, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense by 1. The ranking members of the Defense delegation were Generals Twining, Taylor, and LeMay, and Admiral Burke. Deputy Under Secretary Murphy and Counselor G. Frederick Reinhardt headed the State delegation.]
2. Latin American Force Goals
Mr. Murphy observed that this was an old subject and that the OCB was now seized of it. He said that the State Department was particularly concerned about the interpretation of “case by case” as raised by the OCB discussion. He commented that in the view of the State Department this should mean country by country.
General Twining agreed, noting that Admiral Radford thought that he had worked this problem out in April with Governor Herter. General Twining added that the setting of over-all force goals for Latin America would raise complex problems. General Taylor observed that our military requirements in Latin America are negligible but that for the purpose of collective security the United States does provide some military assistance to Latin American countries. Admiral Burke said that the Navy’s concept on assistance to Latin America calls for the providing of small ships useful for antisubmarine warfare.
Mr. Murphy inquired whether the JCS have established any missions for Latin American forces, noting that in case of war an over-all definition of Latin American military missions would be desirable. General Twining indicated that no formal definition of Latin American responsibilities had been drawn up.
Mr. Snow stated that the Inter-American Defense Board had arrived at a definition of the hemispheric defense requirements for 12 of the 20 Latin American countries and that the State Dept. thus had in the case of these 12 countries the benefit of Defense Department thinking. Problems arose however in the case of the other 8 countries, and even with regard to the first 12, there was lacking a DOD appraisal of reasonable military requirements apart from their hemispheric defense roles. Mr. Snow described the effective assistance received when he was in Mexico from the Army [Page 295] Attaché General Van Atta and earlier from Colonel Messenger in Costa Rica; he said that the advice of these military experts had been most useful to our embassies in dealing with the military assistance problems of those two countries. Mr. Snow also commented that Cuba has recently made a request for 8 medium tanks and because there is no U.S. definition of Cuba’s over-all military needs, it is difficult to know how to act on this request.
General Taylor said that situations of this sort bore out the view of the Joint Chief that military requests by Latin American countries should be treated on a case-by-case basis.
Mr. Irwin noted that the OCB is now acting on this problem and is faced by an apparent difference in interpretation between the JCS, who appear to recommend that Latin American requests be considered item by item, and the State Department, which considers that country-by-country requirements should be the basis of consideration.
General Taylor said that our military objective in Latin America is to increase their internal security and that in case of war we could expect only a limited military contribution from Latin America other than anti-submarine operations.
Mr. Murphy proposed that the matter be withdrawn from the OCB in view of the belief of the Joint Chiefs that it is impossible to give a general picture of United States military requirements in Latin America. He commented that if State could receive JCS guidance even on an informal basis it would be of assistance in dealing with Latin American requests. General Twining said this would be a good way to deal with the matter and that the Joint Chiefs would upon request by State take a look at each case and give their opinion.
It was agreed that ARA in the State Department would deal with Admiral Austin of the Joint Chiefs on cases involving requests by Latin American countries for military assistance. Mr. Murphy noted that the State Department was not seeking to obtain a formal statement of force goals from the Joint Chiefs.
[Here follows discussion of agenda items 3–5, nuclear storage in the Philippines, nuclear storage at Thule, and the Seventh Fleet.]
- Source: Department of State, State–JCS Meetings: Lot 61 D 417. Top Secret.↩