319. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rogers) to Secretary of State Kissinger 1
Peru’s New Revolutionary Program
You will recall that President Morales Bermúdez told you when you met him in Lima February 18 that his government would publicize a new political-economic program for Peru in March. His partial unveiling of the plan, only in broad-brush strokes and without specific details, came in a televised two-hour address Wednesday evening, March 31. The speech practically coincided with our decision to send Carl Maw to Lima for what we hope will be the final political negotiations to settle the Marcona matter.
Of greatest immediate interest to us, of course, were Morales Bermudez’ comments on that issue. While he did not mention the company, its claims or the arrival of the “final phase” of our negotiations, his elliptical references to the problem were encouraging. Indirectly acknowledging that the GOP may have acted precipitously in expropriating Marcona, he said the GOP now is concluding its study of the “conditions of transfer” of the company to the state.
Attached is Embassy Lima’s initial assessment of the overall thrust of the speech.
As we interpret his vaulting rhetoric, what Morales Bermúdez said was, in general terms, foreshadowed by what he told you in your conversation, i.e. that the Peruvian Revolution will continue on a middle course, neither communist nor capitalist, and that radical efforts from either the right or left to alter that course would be dealt with firmly, even forceably.
He also indicated that the details of the middle course Peru will follow under his six-year plan (which is named Tupac Amaru, after the meztizo descendant of the Incas who led the bloody Indian revolt against the Spaniards in the 18th century, now adopted by Peru’s military as the mystic symbol of the Revolution) would be made public over the coming weeks and months.
[Page 862]It was the trial-ballooning of the specifics of that plan, not long after you left Lima, which triggered a spate of coup plotting against Morales Bermúdez among centrist and right-wing officers of all three services. Coming on top of a few perfervid and unfortunate revolutionary speeches the President made while touring the south of the country, the semi-official outlines of Tupac Amaru frightened moderates in the military as well as in the civilian upper and middle classes; these elements saw in the plan a radical and abrupt transformation of Peruvian society and its saddling with an inflexible socialist state.
The consequent turmoil both within the military and civilian sectors has been unprecedented in recent years. The would-be plotters have been telling our Embassy, [less than 1 line not declassified] that Morales Bermúdez has tolerated too much communist penetration into the government, has allowed the Revolution to lurch dangerously leftward, has been indecisive, is drinking too much, etc., and therefore must go. The flood of reports we have received from these people convinces some analysts an attempt on Morales Bermúdez will be made in the next few weeks. These conspiracies reached fever pitch early this week as those most worried awaited his definitive speech.
We tend to agree, as the Embassy suggests in its final comment (para 12 of the attached cable), that the speech may serve to relieve the moderates’ anxieties, at least to some degree.
How this could translate into additional room for maneuver for Morales Bermudez, and especially what it might do for Peruvian negotiating flexibility as we come up to decision-making on Marcona, is more difficult to assess.
I would only add that if Morales Bermudez, with the speech and the outline of his plan to follow, has managed to confound his critics in Peru as much as he has confused our analysts, he may well have found the middle way that could vouchsafe his continuance in the presidency.
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Summary: Rogers informed Kissinger of Morales Bermúdez’s efforts to maintain the Peruvian Revolution by steering a middle course between the political Left and Right.
Source: National Archives, RG 59, ARA/AND Files, Records Relating to Peru: Lot 79D18, POL 1–2, Basic Policies. Confidential. Drafted by King on April 2. Telegram 3079 from Lima, April 1, is attached but not published. In paragraph 12 of telegram 3079 the Ambassador reported that the moderate tone of Morales Bermdez’s speech could represent an attempt to diminish coup-plotting on the part of the moderate-conservative elements.
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