Office of the Historian

ES–41. Letter from the Secretary of Defense (Gates) to the Secretary of State1

Washington, November 30, 1960
Dear Chris:

Attached is the latest information available in Defense about the situation in El Salvador.2 The Defense intelligence holdings indicate a considerable Left activity by the Junta government, with confirmation of facts which have caused our previous concern. The confirmation includes information just received from General Alva Fitch3 who is in San Salvador now and who is well acquainted with Central American affairs.

I wanted to be certain that this information was available to you.

Since the question of recognition primarily is one of political judgment, I will leave this up to you. However, we are so concerned at the prospects of Communist take-over, whether or not recognition is afforded the Junta, that I suggest the State Department, the Defense Department and CIA get together to determine what feasible actions can be taken to insure against the take-over.

Sincerely yours,

Thomas S. Gates
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 716.02/11–2060. Secret.↩
  2. The attachments were a paper and a memorandum. The paper, entitled “The Leftist Trend of the Government of El Salvador,” claimed that Communist influence had risen in the Salvadoran Government, student organizations, and labor movement, and it concluded that any action which strengthened the Junta would contribute to the rise of Communist influence on the future course of the Government. The second attachment, a memorandum of a telephone conversation between General Fitch and Lt. Col. Luther F. Long, General Staff, Chief, Western Hemisphere Section, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, on November 30, 1960, concerned efforts by the Communist-controlled CGTS to organize campesino committees throughout El Salvador↩
  3. Maj. Gen. Alva R. Fitch, Deputy Assistant Chief Staff for Intelligence, Department of the Army, visited El Salvador, November 29-December 1, 1960. General Fitch met with numerous persons he had known during his assignment as military attaché in El Salvador 1948–1950.↩