Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–11, Part 2, Documents on South America, 1973–1976

129. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft) to President Ford¹

Washington, February 22, 1976.

Secretary Kissinger has asked that I pass you the following report.

“The reception here in Brazil has been warm, and the warmth is not artificial; it reflects a basically friendly attitude about the United States in Brazil.

“Brazil is important. It is the largest and most powerful Latin American nation, with continental geography and continental resources and power potential.

“Brazil has gone to extreme lengths to demonstrate the friendship with the United States in the two days I have been here. Some measure of the Brazilian response was suggested by the fact that the other ambassadors here have concluded that the welcome was an order of magnitude warmer, and the press coverage ten times more extensive, than that accorded the French and the German foreign ministers who were recently here.

“This is a big country, with a big heart and a faith in its greatness and its future which makes it possible for them to deal with us without complexes. Among the President and his close advisers I have found a basically healthy attitude about the United States and a considerable regard for you.

“They take a world view. Furthermore, the interest by Brazil in world affairs—SALT, the opening to China, détente, the Middle East—is the interest of serious men, not dilettantes, for they think that they have a world role to play.

“Indeed, they are right. I have tried to say as much while I was here. The thrust of my statements, public and private, have been that Brazil is emerging on the world scene, that the United States welcomes this, that Brazil will make a positive contribution to the future world order and that we are prepared to work with Brazil, intensively, in consultation on bilateral and world problems of common interest.

“This is of more than diplomatic significance. Brazil counts. Its voice means much in international councils; it is, for example, the key to the resolution of the deep sea question, without which the Law of the Sea Conference cannot succeed. Its trade and finance are important in the global scheme of things. It is becoming a world power. This is what must be understood for any fair assessment of what strong relations with Brazil mean to us. If Brazil should turn against us in world affairs we would lose a good friend and face a much more complicated situation.

“The Cuba issue has intruded itself into the press questioning. I have tried to make clear that I am not here to organize a crusade against Cuba. I have said that we ourselves will not stand idly by in the face of further provocative interventionist expeditions by Cuba. But we will do what we need to do, and we are not trying to organize others, even Brazil, to line up with us. The point is sensitive here, however, since the present Foreign Minister was an advocate of early recognition of the MPLA Government. This has not sat well with his vigorous anti-Communist President, and his military colleagues.

“Brazil is indeed a military government, but one less blatantly so than Peru. Here, no one wears a uniform to the office, the government does not style itself, as the Peruvians do, the military government of Brazil. There is no feeling here that the military are the Jesuits of a new order, but rather that they are one part of a total national effort. There is a sense of movement toward more participation and more democracy. The President’s chief advisor, General Golbery, who looks like a grade school mathematics teacher and talks like a speculation philosopher, made the point. He puts it that Brazil has moved from dictatorship to authoritarianism, and is now moving to democracy. The question is how fast, not whether.

“The major irritant to our relations—the thing that stuck in his throat, as the President put it—is the $1.6 billion trade deficit between the U.S. and Brazil, and the impression here that, rather than help, the United States is piling up one trade restriction after another against Brazil’s exports. The President even went so far as to say that he would find it hard to explain to his public how he could travel to the United States while the problem is unsolved. We had good talks on the subject and the Brazilians put forward an interesting idea which I shall discuss with Simon upon my return.

“I confess I really like the Brazilians. The President is a protestant, gentle in the Brazilian mode, but firm, a real father figure, and, I think, incapable of cruelty or of tolerating cruelty. The others, except for Golbery, were all civilians; again, another difference from Peru, and civilians, I add, who are on top of their responsibilities, competent, armed with the facts, able to face them, and with a program for meeting Brazil’s economic and balance of payments crisis. The Minister of Finance and the Minister of Planning are both as able as any official in the entire hemisphere; they will be in Washington regularly in the coming months, and well worth meeting.

“In short, the spirit of the visit was warm; the talks, businesslike; the results, in my view, highly beneficial, for our long term interests in this hemisphere and in the world.”

1. Summary: Scowcroft transmitted to President Ford a report from Kissinger on his visit to Brazil.

   Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box CL 176, Geopolitical File, Latin America, Trips, February 1976, Trip Book, Folder 10. Secret; Sensitive. Sent for information. Ford initialed the memorandum.