1. Editorial Note

On May 9, the Board Assistants of the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB) reviewed a draft “Report on Latin America (NSC 5613/1),” dated April 30, prepared by the OCB’s Working Group on Latin America. Suggested changes were incorporated into a revised draft, submitted to the OCB under date of May 12. (Record of Actions at Board Assistants’ Meeting, May 12; Department of State, S/S–OCB Files: Lot 62 D 430)

The Operations Coordinating Board discussed the draft report at a formal meeting on May 21, and took the following actions. First, it revised the draft in light of recent developments in Latin America, particularly Vice President Richard M. Nixon’s trip to South America, April 27–May 15, and concurred in its transmission to the National Security Council (NSC), with the understanding that the NSC’s Executive Secretary, James S. Lay, Jr., would arrange with appropriate agencies for the “further revision of the paper in accordance with the Board’s general agreement.” Second, it agreed to recommend NSC review of NSC 5613/1, because of difficulties encountered in the implementation of the policy, the impact of possible Congressional actions pursuant to the Vice President’s trip, and such recommendations that he might make. Third, it concurred in a Treasury request to retain more precisely defined split decisions in the report, if such decisions were not readily eliminated during the course of further revision. Finally, it noted that the split decision in the draft report concerning basic commodity problems already had been eliminated by recent action of the Council on Foreign Economic Policy (CFEP), authorizing the Department of State, as an exception to established policy, to participate in discussion of an international coffee agreement. (Minutes of OCB Meeting, approved May 28; ibid.)

NSC 5613/1, “U.S. Policy Toward Latin America,” was approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 25, 1956; for text, see Foreign Relations, 1955–1957, vol. VI, page 119.