EC–9. Editorial Note
In despatch 30 from Quito, July 22, 1958, the Embassy reported on a trip of Ecuadoran Minister of Defense Alfonso Calderón Moreno to the United States, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Brazil, and Chile, June 7–July 18, 1958, presumably to buy arms for Ecuador. (722.00(W)/7–2258) At a news conference which he held immediately upon his return to Quito, according to the Embassy’s report, he stated that in the United States he arranged to pay an old Ecuadoran debt to the Department of Defense, arranged to buy a Landing Ship, Medium (LSM), and had fruitful talks with General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., Chairman of the Inter-American Defense Board. No record of Minister of Defense Calderón’s talks during his unofficial visit to the United States was found in Department of State files.