Office of the Historian

193. Memorandum of conversation, June 29, between President Kennedy, President Lopez Mateos, and Minister Tello1

Mexico City, June 29, 1962, 1 p.m.
[Facsimile Page 1]

SUBJECT

  • Flow of Private Capital

PARTICIPANTS

  • President Kennedy
  • President Lopez Mateos
  • Minister Tello
  • Ambassador Mann
  • Ambassador Carrillo Flores

President Kennedy opened the conversation by expressing his gratification and thanks for the warm reception he had received and inquired about the youth organization which he had seen on the route from the airport. President Lopez Mateos said this was an organization under the direction of the Ministry of Education and had three purposes: Physical education, civic education and cultural education.

President Lopez Mateos suggested that Ambassador Moscoso and Mr. Linder of the Export-Import Bank meet with the Minister of Finance and with the Minister of National Patrimony. President Kennedy agreed.

President Kennedy lamented the fact that private capital today seemed to be [illegible in the original] and frightened. He spoke of the need for private investment in order to [illegible in the original] adequate economic growth rate and the importance of confidence on the [illegible in the original] private capital. The President remarked that Canadian difficulties today stemmed in part from a Canadian desire to reduce the rate of United States private investments in Canada; but this had had the effect of slowing down economic growth and creating [Typeset Page 466] a balance of payments problem. President Kennedy also spoke of his hope that United States private investments would flow in greater volume to developing countries rather than to the highly industrialized European Common Market. [Facsimile Page 2] President Lopez Mateos appeared to be in agreement and made some reference to the fact that a newspaper article in a small town paper was adequate to cause flight of capital from Mexico.

In the course of the discussion, President Lopez Mateos invited President Kennedy to speak freely concerning any topic that was on his mind and mentioned that he particularly wished to discuss later the question of salt water as well as broader questions of the Alliance for Progress and hemisphere relations.

  1. Flow of private capital. Confidential. 2 pp. DOS, Presidential Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 66 D 149.↩