DR–25. Memorandum of the Discussion at the 453rd Meeting of the National Security Council1
3. FORTHCOMING MEETING OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES WITH RESPECT TO CUBA AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Secretary Herter said that the Organization of American States would hold a meeting on August 15 to discuss action with respect to the Dominican Republic. Venezuela was trying to effect a separation between the problem of Cuba and the problem of the Dominican Republic. The OAS had sent a special mission to investigate the Venezuelan charge that the attack on Betancourt2 had been directed by the Dominican Republic. If the OAS proposes sanctions against the Dominican Republic, the case would have to go to the UN. The OAS, however, can recommend measures which each state could implement individually. Secretary Herter said the U.S. would suggest such measures as the following against the Dominican Republic: withdrawal of Chiefs of Missions; the admonition to take into account OAS condemnation in relations with the Dominican Republic; refusal to permit the shipment of arms and ammunition into the Dominican Republic; collaborating in preventing shipment of arms and ammunition from the Dominican Republic to other countries, including air and sea patrols; a request that other nations outside the hemisphere take note of the measures recommended by the OAS; creation of a committee to observe the implementing of these measures.
The President asked whether it would not be desirable to add to the list surveillance to make certain that no other American state intervenes militarily in the Dominican Republic. Secretary Herter said the recommendation on the shipment of arms and ammunition into the Dominican Republic would prohibit such intervention and was intended to cover the President’s point.
The President said he believed it was desirable to connect the cases of the Dominican Republic and Cuba but he also believed that it was very necessary to settle the Trujillo situation because it appears to be [Typeset Page 515] impossible to shake the belief of Latin America that the Trujillo situation is more serious than the Castro situation. Until Trujillo is eliminated, we cannot get our Latin American friends to reach a proper level of indignation in dealing with Castro.
Secretary Herter then referred to the legal requirement for the purchase of sugar from the Dominican Republic and said an effort should be made to get the law changed in this session of Congress. The President said if the law were not changed, he would simply refuse to buy Dominican sugar. If impeachment proceedings were brought against him, that would take longer than his term has to run. Secretary Herter said his legal advisers had agreed that we were required to buy Dominican sugar but we were simply ignoring that requirement. As a result Congressman Cooley3 was on the warpath. In Secretary Herter’s opinion, a great deal of the difficulty was expenditure of Dominican [Facsimile Page 2] money in the U.S. The President said that any proposals to buy Dominican sugar should be sent to him for approval and he would take a long time to study the matter. He also believed we should frankly say that it appears that the Dominican Republic bribes are coming into this country in an effort to influence this government. Secretary Herter agreed that we would lose prestige if we bought sugar from the Dominican Republic after refusing to buy it from Cuba.
Secretary Herter then reported that Mexico had been suggesting that Brazil, Mexico, and Canada should mediate between the U.S. and Cuba. Such mediation would recognize the idea that the sole parties to the present controversy are the U.S. and Cuba. The President said we have already said that we are ready to have our problems with Cuba mediated. We want to have these problems settled peacefully. Secretary Herter said that the whole problem had been shifted toward the concept of the introduction of communism into this hemisphere.
The President said that if we attempted to take any action with respect to Cuba before settling the Trujillo situation, we would be the loser. He had confidence in the Presidents of Mexico and Brazil and the Prime Minister of Canada but he thought the problem of Cuba was now before the OAS and should remain there. Secretary Gates said we had a difficult problem of public opinion because the American people were interested in the situation in Cuba but did not care about the situation in the Dominican Republic. The President said American newspapers had been attacking Trujillo for fifteen years. He asked how we could keep the OAS as a going concern. We could not do it if we focused sanctions on Cuba and forgot about Trujillo. We were able to induce the [Typeset Page 516] Latin American leaders to talk seriously about Cuba only after agreeing that Trujillo is also a problem.
Secretary Herter said that procedurally we could not get the case of Cuba before the OAS until the Trujillo situation had been considered because the Trujillo case was brought up first. With respect to sugar legislation, he asked whether the President thought it would be undesirable to prepare any new legislation for this session of Congress. The President said he had not meant to suggest that he was opposed to any new sugar legislation. He would prefer to have the authority of law for refusing to buy Dominican sugar. He said that the OAS would not consider the case of Cuba if we focused all our attention on Castro and forgot about Trujillo.
[Facsimile Page 3]The National Security Council:
Discussed the subject on the basis of draft U.S. recommendations to the Organization of American States with respect to the Dominican Republic, as read at the meeting by the Secretary of State.4
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records. Top Secret. Extract. Drafted and signed by Marion W. Boggs on July 28. Information on the source text indicates that this NSC meeting was held at Newport, Rhode Island. Agenda items 1 and 2 are omitted; they cover, respectively, “Significant World Developments Affecting U.S. Security” and “Measures to Enhance U.S. Military Readiness.”↩
- For documentation on the attempted assassination of President Betancourt, see VE–44 and DR–26.↩
- Harold D. Cooley (D–N.C.), Chairman, House Agriculture Committee.↩
- This paragraph constitutes NSC Action 2273.↩