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

ES–6. Memorandum of Conversation by the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)¹

Washington, March 11, 1959

SUBJECT

• Call on the President by President Lemus of El Salvador

PARTICIPANTS

• The President; President Lemus; the Acting Secretary; Foreign Minister Ortiz Mancia; Minister of Economy Rochac; Minister of Public Works Parker; Economic Adviser Jorge Sol; Ambassador Castro; Ambassador Kalijarvi; Mr. Rubottom; Lieutenant Colonel Vernon Walters.

The President, after greeting President Lemus and his colleagues, acknowledged that his visitor had an engagement to speak before a joint session of Congress and suggested that, in view of the time factor, President Lemus raise any matters of substance which he might have on his mind.

President Lemus said that there was one subject of special interest to him, i.e. how to increase the economic strength of his nation as well as others. The President then inquired as to whether there was a project for a Central American regional market. President Lemus replied in the affirmative, pointing out that El Salvador for several years had been convinced that there was too much economic compartmentation, as well as overdependence on one or two products.

The President responded by pointing out that the problem of borders was not limited to small countries, since the United States and Canada, even though a common geographic and security bloc, had to contend with the political and economic problems created by the division at the frontier. He mentioned specifically the problems of lead and zinc, petroleum, wheat, and goods manufactured by wholly-owned U.S. companies in Canada. President Lemus, while recognizing the problem between the United States and Canada, said that their compartmentation was even more serious and was practically strangling them. The President recognized this and asserted that an integrated market would strengthen all of Central America without any one country needing to lose dignity or any part of its independence. What is needed is for it to get started. The Salvadoran President declared his optimism for the future, especially with U.S. cooperation.

Going back to his experience ten years ago in Europe, the President recalled that he had preached the idea of economic integration there. Now, in spite of difficulties, the European countries are approaching their goal, placing greater importance on the advantages and less on the risks of integration. President Lemus said that it was precisely these examples which stimulated them. President Eisenhower recalled some of the cooperative efforts in Europe, in which the U.S. had participated, which had stimulated the common market, such as the European coal and steel community, Euratom, and NATO. He admitted that we had been motivated by our own interest as well as that of our European allies.

Minister of Economy Rochac, at the invitation of President Lemus, described the one-hundred-year effort of Central America to achieve political union, followed by the realization about ten years ago that such union could come about only as a result of economic integration. These efforts have now resulted in two treaties subscribed to in Tegucigalpa in June 1958, the first designed to free trade,² and the second designed to achieve industrial integration.³ He alluded favorably to Dr. Milton Eisenhower’s Report and its suggestion that El Salvador and Honduras might carry out a pilot project in economic integration which seemed a more practical approach than waiting for all of the countries to agree on a method. Mr. Rochac recalled the recent visit of Messrs. Frank and Turkel from the Department, which had stimulated still further interest in the subject in his country and in Honduras. The public is very impatient and wants results rather than more studies. The Minister went back to the Central American wars at the close of the last century and recalled the role of the United States in the 1907 pact which had brought peace between the five countries. Central America can do a great deal by itself, but the United States, acting as a big brother, can help to accomplish even more. Perhaps our efforts of 1907 can now be duplicated in the economic sector. Both El Salvador and Honduras urgently need to integrate their economies—this is not a capricious whim. El Salvador has a burgeoning population and practically no territory in which to expand, whereas Honduras has a vast area with a very small population; El Salvador has no Atlantic coast and Honduras has no developed areas on the Pacific; they are already joining their transportation routes and it would be easy to make their currencies convertible.

The President assured the visitors that they could count on the sympathetic attention of the United States to their problems, as well as our cooperation in every feasible way. President Lemus acknowledged that they had just seen practical evidence of this cooperation with the presence of Messrs, Frank and Turkel. He said also that, prior to his departure from San Salvador, President Villeda Morales of Honduras had empowered him to convey to the President Honduras’ hope that the U.S. would support the efforts to forge ahead with the integration program on an urgent basis.

The President suggested that it would also be helpful if every-body in the United States, irrespective of condition of health, would drink twelve cups of Sanka a day rather than just one or two cups of coffee. President Lemus acknowledged that this kind of help would also be appreciated.

President Lemus said that his colleagues would be discussing specific problems with their opposite numbers in the United States Government, but that he had needed to know the President’s own views.

With respect to communism, the President said that he assumed that the Salvadoran President shared his concern over its growth and inquired about Communist activities in Central America. President Lemus declared that communism was a world-wide problem which they could not escape completely. Communism grows largely because of underdevelopment and low living standards, as well as the lack of sufficient education to discern between the facts and the propaganda put out by the Communists, such as that of placing the blame for all the world’s problems on the United States. This is not the case, of course. The Salvadoran President referred to his OAS speech of yesterday and the fact that the Communists are moving into intellectual groups, as well as economically impoverished groups, thus complicating the problem even more, since the poor and uneducated are greatly impressed when their superiors echo the Communist line. Greater effort must be made to solve economic problems, such as the opportunity offered by economic integration, to prevent the Communists from capitalizing on their efforts to move into these groups not heretofore penetrated by them.

Both Presidents rose at 12:10 and, following the taking of pictures, President Lemus and his party departed for the Capitol.

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Confidential.
2. Reference is to the Multilateral Treaty on Free Trade and Central American Economic Integration (with annexes), signed by representatives of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua at Tegucigalpa, June 10, 1958, and entered into force June 2, 1959; for text, see 454 UNTS 47.
3. Reference is to the Agreement on the Regime for Central American Integration Industries, signed by representatives of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua at Tegucigalpa, June 10, 1958, and entered into force June 4, 1961; for text, see U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America, Multilateral Economic Cooperation in Latin America (E/CN.12/621), vol. I, p. 23.