133. Memorandum for the record, January 221
SUBJECT
- Meeting at the White House, January 22, 1963
Assistant Secretary Martin, AID Administrator Bell, Mr. Graham Martin, Deputy Coordinator Alliance for Progress; Mr. John Crimmins, Director of Caribbean and Mexican Affairs, and I were present at a meeting at the White House January 22 to discuss Guatemala and Haiti. Col. J.C. King, Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division, and Mr. Helms, his immediate superior from the Agency, were also present.
The President opened the meeting, asking about the situation in Guatemala and the candidacy of Arévalo. He was told that the Latin American Policy Committee had agreed in December on eight courses of action for Guatemala as follows:
[text not declassified]
Mr. Martin [less than 1 line not declassified] indicated that [less than 1 line not declassified] not too much progress had been made. Finding and building up an acceptable candidate in Guatemala seemed almost [Typeset Page 326] impossible. Mario Mendez Montenegro had been discredited in the municipal elections and possibly Jose Cruz Salazar was stronger in the interior than had been expected. Three observers are working on the poll of Arévalo’s strength in the interior and find that it is not as strong as it was suspected. By March, the results should be known. [less than 1 line not declassified] Arévalo’s prestige in Guatemala without the United States appearing to take [less than 1 line not declassified]. Positions at Padua and West Berlin Universities have been found for Arévalo and, after there is some pressure on him, possibly he might take one of these. [less than 1 line not declassified] is also beginning to look into the military attitude. The military leaders at present seem to indicate that they will not tolerate Arévalo’s election. [text not declassified] another inter-agency meeting will take place early in March. The President was very interested and wanted to know more about Arévalo himself. He does not feel that we should appear to be in open [Facsimile Page 2] opposition to Arévalo because he is afraid that if we could not do anything about stopping his election we must keep some lines open to him. The President wanted to know what the Mexicans think of Arévalo. (Mr. Martin has sent Tom Mann a letter on this subject.) [text not declassified] Mr. Martin indicated he had also written President Betancourt and Foreign Minister Muniz of Argentina that Arévalo was not a suitable candidate and the President wanted to know what Betancourt thought of Arévalo. Mr. Martin said that our Ambassador had twice reported that Betancourt was pretty disillusioned about Arévalo and the President suggested that the inter-agency meeting take place in mid-March before the Costa Rican meeting and that he would talk to Betancourt about Arévalo when the former visits Washington soon. [less than 1 line not declassified] indicated that one course of action open to Ydígoras is a trial of Arévalo for killing a Colonel Arana. The President made it clear that he did not want any physical action taken against Arévalo. This was clearly understood. He also wanted to know who Arévalo’s friends in the United States are. It was agreed we would try and find this out. He was very interested in Arévalo’s recent book and arrangements were being made to send a copy to Mr. Dungan. The President especially wanted to know what Arévalo had said or done the last two or three years, does this show he has changed? What does he think about things? Would it be possible to get along with him?
In the Haiti talks (reported separately) Mr. Martin indicated that President Duvalier had failed to perform properly and would probably not retire when his normal term of the presidency ended in May. Mr. Martin recalled that he had gone through a phony election last May allegedly extending his term six years. The President again indicated that [less than 1 line not declassified] (Mr. Martin had made it very clear that the opposition was completely fragmented) we should not cut all our bridges to Duvalier.
[Typeset Page 327]Another topic of interest introduced was the President’s question as to why Muniz had raised a question of budgetary support in talks earlier that day. Mr. Martin reported that even when Ambassador McClintock had left Buenos Aires budgetary support was not on the schedule and that Muniz was very embarrassed to raise this but had apparently gotten orders from his President at the time of his departure to try and get some money.
The President also spoke of his visit to Costa Rica which will be covered in a separate memorandum.
Office of Central American and Panamanian Affairs
- Meeting at the White House to discuss the situation in Guatemala and Arévalo’s candidacy. Top Secret. 2 pp. DOS, CF, 714.00/1–2263.↩