Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Volume V, Microfiche Supplement, American Republics

EC–11. Memorandum from the Under Secretary of State (Dillon) to the President¹

Washington, September 28, 1959

SUBJECT

• Confirmation of Determination and Determination under Section 451(a) of the Mutual Security Act of 1954 as amended, permitting the use of funds in order to furnish military assistance to Ecuador.

Ecuador will be host to the 11th Inter-American Conference at Quito in early 1960 which will be attended by the Foreign Ministers of the 21 American States. Ecuador has also proposed that a meeting of chiefs of state of the American Republics be held in Guayaquil during the closing days of the Conference. The Ecuadoran Government, recalling the serious disorders that occurred during the Inter-American Conference in Bogotá in 1948 and expressing its grave concern over known Communist plans to disrupt the forthcoming Conference in Quito and the proposed Presidential meeting in Guayaquil, has requested the United States grant assistance in developing appropriate security measures.²

Current indications are that the Communists will seek to disrupt the 11th Inter-American Conference by employing their propaganda apparatus, both in Ecuador and internationally, to portray the Conference as an instrumentality of United States imperialism in Latin America and, by using their penetration in Ecuadoran student and labor groups, as well as agitators planted in peaceful crowds, to foment demonstrations against the Conference and United States Delegates with a view to discrediting and breaking up the Conference. The Ecuadoran security forces are not adequate in terms of training, organization, and equipment to cope with this Communist threat. Nor is the Government of Ecuador able to finance the necessary equipment and training which will not be provided except through United States aid.

Because it is in the United States interest that the Inter-American Conference be held in a calm, democratic atmosphere unmarred by Communist agitation or by an extraordinary demonstration of force, and because of your possible participation in the proposed meeting of Presidents in Guayaquil, it is believed imperative that the necessary grant assistance be extended Ecuador. Should the Communists succeed in disrupting the Quito Conference, this would do great harm to United States prestige and foreign policy objectives in Latin America and would undermine the confidence of the peoples of this hemisphere in the Inter-American system which the United States in concert with other American nations has been working constantly to strengthen and perfect, most recently, for example, at the Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Santiago.

Because of the urgency of commencing the internal security assistance to Ecuador as soon as possible, on July 12, 1959, a training program was submitted with the informal concurrence of the Departments of State and Defense and the Bureau of the Budget for your approval. On July 14, 1959, pursuant to Section 451(a) of the Mutual Security Act of 1954, as amended³ (hereinafter referred to as “the Act’’), you orally determined it to be important to the security of the United States that not to exceed $62,000 of the temporary appropriations for fiscal year 1960 made available for mutual security programs by Section 101(b) of Public Law 86–76⁴ and any amendments thereto be used to furnish military services to the Ecuadoran Army, without regard to the requirements of Section 105(b)(4) of the Act. Of the $62,000, approximately $43,757 has been obligated for this purpose pursuant to the authority of Public Law 86–76, as amended by Public Law 86-118.⁵

Apart from the services referred to above, there has now been developed with the Government of Ecuador a program of assistance in two phases. First, the United States proposes to provide riot control and other appropriate training and equipment to the Ecuadoran National Police, which normally are responsible for the internal security of the country but are inadequately trained and equipped to discharge this responsibility, in order to improve their ability to maintain security during the Quito Conference and proposed Guayaquil meeting. This phase of the program will cost an estimated $402,892.

Second, against the contingency that the situation should become critical and a state of emergency should be declared by the President of Ecuador, during which the police would be placed under military command and the combined police and armed forces would be responsible for the maintenance of order in the country, the United States also proposes to provide a more comprehensive program of internal security training and equipment to the Ecuadoran armed forces. This proposed military program comprises the furnishing of such training and equipment to specially organized Ecuadoran “anti-Communist forces”, and is estimated to cost $803,175 (military training additional to that already furnished, estimated to cost $19,410, and military equipment, materials and services estimated to cost $783,765).

While Ecuador is eligible to receive grant military assistance, the furnishing of such assistance is specifically conditioned by the requirements of the first and third sentences of Section 105(b)(4) of the Act. These provide, in effect, that military assistance may be furnished to Latin American countries only to permit them to participate in Western Hemisphere defense missions, and that internal security requirements shall not be the basis for military assistance programs to such countries in the absence of a Presidential determination. Accordingly, in order to furnish the additional military assistance to the Ecuadoran armed forces for the internal security program, it is necessary to waive these requirements.

The use of funds as referred to above is considered to be in furtherance of the purposes of the Act and important to the security of the United States.

IT IS, ACCORDINGLY, RECOMMENDED that you sign the enclosed memorandum,⁶ thereby confirming your oral determination and making the new determination as required by the Act for the above-mentioned purposes.

The Secretary of Defense and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget concur in this recommendation.

Douglas Dillon

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, White House Central Files. Secret.
2. A memorandum of conversation of March 13, 1959, records Ecuadoran Ambassador Chiriboga’s request to Assistant Secretary Rubottom for technical assistance to the national police of Ecuador and for personnel to train Ecuadorans in intelligence work. (362/3–1359)
3. The Mutual Security Act of 1958, Public Law 85–477, approved June 30, 1958, redesignated sec. 301 of the Mutual Security Act of 1954 as sec. 451. (72 State 261)
4. For the text of Public Law 86–76, approved July 1, 1959, see 73 State 159.
5. For the text of Public Law 86–118, approved July 31, 1959, see 73 State 266.
6. Not printed; in a memorandum to the Secretary of State of September 29, 1959, the President confirmed his oral determination of July 14, 1959, for the proposed assistance to Ecuador. A copy of the confirmation is attached to the source text.
   The United States concluded an internal security assistance agreement with Ecuador by notes exchanged at Washington, January 22 and 25, 1960. Airgram CA–6987 to Quito, February 29, 1960, enclosed copies of the referenced notes and informed the Embassy that the agreement was deemed to have entered into operation on July 15, 1959. (722.5–MSP/2–2960)