118. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American
Affairs (Rubottom) to
the Secretary of State1
Washington, April 24,
1959.
SUBJECT
- Caribbean Chiefs of Mission Meeting, 19592
I have the honor to submit a Summary Report3 on the Meeting of the United States Chiefs of
Mission in the Caribbean area held in San Salvador April 9–11, 1959. For the
permanent records of the Department, there is also annexed to the summary
record a synopsis of the proceedings of the meeting and of the papers
presented there by various participants.4
From the point of view of our political problems and relationships in the
troubled Caribbean area, it is my belief that the Chiefs of Mission
Conference was beneficial. The very fact that it was held at this time and
received widespread attention in the Latin American press served to impress
on the governments and peoples of the area our serious concern with the
preservation of peace in the Caribbean area. The well-publicized press
statement issued at the conclusion of the Conference5 in effect served notice that the United States—while
welcoming evolution towards representative government—would
[Page 382]
stand firmly behind its commitments under the
Charter of the OAS6 and the Rio
Treaty7 in assisting any victims of revolutionary activities
organized and supported from foreign countries. As a minimum, thus, the
Conference served to clarify the United States position, to provide some
additional deterrent to revolutionary expeditions and to restore some
measure of a sense of security to countries which felt themselves the
intended victims of attacks. I would also like to think that the Conference,
along with other measures we have taken to preserve the principle of
non-intervention in the area, made some contribution in leading Prime
Minister Castro of Cuba to give
public assurances that his Government would not intervene in the affairs of
other Latin American republics and to cause his Government to take some
action against revolutionary filibusterers assembling in Cuba. Although only
time will tell whether Cuba lives up to these assurances, the general effect
at the moment is to provide a needed relaxation of the tensions which have
been acute in the Caribbean area since the beginning of the year.
The Conference also resulted in an exchange of views of great value to the
Departmental officers attending and, I believe, to the Chiefs of Mission who
participated.8 The
developments in Cuba and their implications for the United States in the
Caribbean area held the spotlight, as was expected, and there was naturally
a fairly wide range of interpretation and recommendations as to the course
we should take. Of equal importance, our Ambassadors brought into sharper
focus a number of other problems—such as the need to make the DLF more responsive to foreign policy needs,
the need to have a stronger free trade movement in the area, and the need to
pursue vigorously a program to counter communism and other forms of
anti-Americanism in the area—which will require our attention over the
coming months in order to find better solutions.
I should also like to take the occasion to record my appreciation for your
concurrence in the attendance of the Deputy Under Secretary for
Administration, Mr. Henderson, at the Conference. For
the public, his presence there served to underscore the importance which the
Government attached to the Conference. For our Ambassadors and for the
participants from the Department, Mr. Henderson’s
attendance
[Page 383]
provided an opportunity
to be briefed by a ranking officer of the Service and he made many valuable
contributions to the success of the Conference.
[Attachment]
MEETING OF UNITED STATES CHIEFS OF MISSION IN THE CARIBBEAN
AREA
San Salvador,
April 9–12,
1959
Summary Report9
- (1)
- The meeting was opened at 2:30 p.m. by the Honorable Thorsten V. Kalijarvi who
introduced His Excellency, Sr. Alfredo
Ortiz Mancia, the Foreign Minister of El Salvador.
Sr. Ortiz Mancia warmly
welcomed the Conference to his country. Those in attendance were the
Honorable Loy Henderson,
Deputy Undersecretary of State, the Honorable Roy R. Rubottom, Assistant
Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs,10 the United States Ambassadors to
Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela and
the Organization of American States. A list of the participants is
included in the enclosure.11
- (2)
- The Conference then heard and discussed a briefing by Mr.
Henderson on the current
international situation and a review by Mr. Rubottom of the current problems
confronting United States policy in Latin America. Mr. Rubottom stressed that Latin
America was in a period of accelerating economic, social and
political changes and instabilities, that these tended to generate
difficulties in the relationship of Latin American countries to the
United States and to create opportunities for Communism and other
hostile forces to stimulate actions and attitude inimical to the
traditional sense of Western Hemisphere solidarity, and that the
United States Government and its representatives in Latin America
would have to work with a sense of great urgency to cope
successfully with the problems ahead.
- (3)
- There was an extensive discussion of developments in Cuba since
Castro assumed power and
of their implications for US policy. Ambassador Bonsai presented a report giving
the background of the Cuban Revolution and of Castro’s movement; describing the
changes which Castro sought
to make in Cuba’s domestic and foreign policies
[Page 384]
along reformist, nationalistic and
somewhat socialistic and neutralist lines; and highlighted such
problems of special concern to the US as the expansion of Communist
influence in Cuba, the anti-American campaign fanned by Castro, and activities in Cuba
directed at the overthrow of the Dominican, Nicaraguan and Haitian
Governments.12 In the ensuing discussion,
general concern was expressed about Castro and the situation in Cuba as it affected US
interests, especially with respect to growing Communist influence,
to Castro’s indication that
Cuba should be neutral in the East-West struggle and to apparent
Cuban backing of revolutionary activities. There was agreement that
United States policies and actions should be directed at containing
these trends. Various suggestions were made throughout the
Conference as to the methods and timing of such actions.
- (4)
- In the light of the situation in Cuba, the Conference then
discussed revolutionary activities and intentions in the Caribbean
area. Ambassadors Whelan,
Farland and Drew described problems which had
arisen with respect to Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Haiti
as a result of threatened revolutionary activities and emphasized
their need for reassurances that the United States would support
them against foreign intervention. Ambassadors Bonsai and Sparks described the revolutionary
propaganda and preparations by exile groups in Cuba and Venezuela,
pointing out that there had yet been no firm evidence that
revolutionary expeditions were ready to depart. Ambassador Willauer described his conversations
with ex-President Figueres on
the Cuban situation and revolutionary activities. He suggested, in
essence, that the energies and attention of those seeking to end
“dictatorships” in the Caribbean be deflected from mounting
revolutionary expeditions and channeled into dealing with the
dictatorship problem through the OAS
which would be asked to set up standards of human rights—it was his
feeling that in practice the Latin Americans could not agree among
themselves as to how far to permit external intervention in internal
affairs and that the complex “dictatorship” problem would thus be
restored to better perspective. Ambassadors Newbegin and Mallory described the Governments
of Honduras and Guatemala as being opposed to revolutionary
activities in their countries directed at other countries of the
area.
- (5)
The next discussion was on Communism and anti-American
radicalism in the Caribbean area. A paper on this subject was
presented by Ambassador Sparks,13 who summarized the
offensive which international Communism had mounted in the
region to capitalize on the favorable climate which resulted
from economic, political and
[Page 385]
social dislocations in the area and from
the growing anti-Americanism of the region which was basically a
reaction by the “have-nots” against the biggest “have” nation in
the world.
The ensuing discussion was principally devoted to a discussion of
the various irritants in US-Latin American relations and the
manner in which they were used and blown up by the
Communists.
Concluding the discussions on political topics, Ambassador
Dreier reviewed the
role of the OAS in the present
Caribbean situation, focusing on a detailed explanation of the
abilities and limitations of the organization with respect to
prevention of revolutionary expeditions and on the possibilities
of developing a United States position on what degree of
attention the OAS should give to
the subject of human rights and democracy. There ensued a
discussion on the Charter of the Organization of American States
and related inter-American agreements and the circumstances
under which they may be applied, with particular attention to
the current revolutionary movements in the area. Ambassador
Harrington raised the
problem of obtaining effective support for Panama in the event
the threatened invasion from Cuba materialized.
- (6)
Turning to the question of the possible economic integration of
Central America, Ambassador Kalijarvi, followed by Mr. Turkel of the Department,
reviewed the progress which had been made towards the
establishment of a regional market in Latin America. Ambassador
Mallory also
presented a paper urging that the United States offer
inducements to appropriate Latin American countries to create
common markets and to remove impediments to the investment of
private capital in those countries. Mr. Turkel briefly reviewed the
situation with respect to commodities in the Caribbean area,
indicating that coffee prices will decline further during 1959
and that markets for the other commodities of importance to the
area will not be satisfactory.
In the ensuing discussion the subject broadened into a review of
the more general economic problems of the area. Ambassador
Hill raised the
problem of the dangers of the Soviet economic offensive and
there was general agreement that the great flexibility which the
Soviet bloc maintains in selecting and directing its efforts at
particular targets where the United States position is weak
gives it a great opportunity to disrupt the economy of the area
for its political ends. Ambassador Hill also brought up the problem of lack of
understanding in Latin America of United States economic
policies and the adverse psychological effect which was created
by the feeling in Latin America that the United States had
rejected policies which were not adapted to their
needs.
- (7)
- Special problems were raised at various
points in the discussions for further consideration by the
Department. Among the more important were:
[Page 386]
- (A)
- Strengthening of the OAS to deal more
adequately with threats to the peace of the character now in
evidence in the Caribbean area.
- (B)
- Development Loan Fund. The views
expressed at the Conference reflected a feeling that the
DLF was not responsive
to US foreign policy objectives in Latin America.
- (C)
- Soviet Political Cultural and Economic
Offensive. There was a general feeling that there
were great difficulties in effectively countering Soviet
efforts to penetrate the area by establishing diplomatic
missions, expanding cultural contacts and seeking to promote
trade when the United States itself gave the aspect of
actively seeking increased contacts between the United
States and the Soviet Union in these fields.
- (D)
- Organización Regional Inter-Americana de
Trabajadores (ORIT). General dissatisfaction was
expressed about the work and standing of this free trade
union organization in the area. The view was expressed that
it had become over-identified as an instrumentality of the
US, that its people in the field were often ineffective and
even counter-productive, and that as matters stood at
present it would be preferable from the point of view of US
policy objectives if it were dissolved.
- (E)
- Communists ana Other Exiles. Due to
the Latin American practice of exiling to neighboring
countries rather than imprisoning Communists and other
political troublemakers, there has developed an increasing
problem of interest to the United States as to what should
be done with them. They cannot be sent home and if they
remain in the neighboring country they pose additional
security risks to that country as well as danger to their
countries. Further study of the possibility of having them
transferred to more remote countries was urged.
- (F)
- Implementation of Decisions. It was
observed that after a policy decision was taken, especially
with respect to economic matters, it was often months and
sometimes years before it was actually carried out on the
ground. The Department was urged to find ways to cut down on
the bureaucratic procedures which delayed prompt action on
decisions.
- (8)
- After spirited discussion, the Conference adopted and issued the
communiqué given at Annex 1.14
