Office of the Historian

298. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, April 12, 1977, 9:30 a.m.

SUBJECT

  • Bilateral Aid, OASGA—Grenada

PARTICIPANTS

    • Barbados
    • R. Orlando Marville, Charge d’Affaires a.i., Embassy of Barbados
    • United States
    • David C. Pierce, Barbados Desk Officer (ARA/CAR)
    • Thomas Wolfson, newly assigned Consular Officer, AmEmbassy Bridgetown

Pierce and Wolfson called on Charge Marville to ask his thoughts on consular work in Barbados. After a long discussion comparing consular work in the United States and Barbados, Marville began to talk about U.S./Barbadian relations.

Bilateral Aid

Marville reiterated the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” theme—that Barbados and some other Caribbean countries are not receiving U.S. bilateral aid because they are not causing the U.S. enough trouble.2 [Page 737] He went on to say that he thought the bilateral assistance sought by his government was not grants or loans, but training for Barbadians in engineering and mid-level technology in U.S. institutions.

OASGA—Grenada

Marville said that the OAS General Assembly, scheduled for June in Grenada, “must go forward” for a number of reasons. He said the main reason was not Caribbean prestige—although this was a factor—but access by West Indians to the OAS bureaucracy. He said he thought the Latins would have to pay more attention to the emerging states of the Caribbean, now that their number would give them more clout in the OAS. Having the OASGA in Grenada would help to “awaken” the Latins to the problems faced by their Caribbean neighbors.

  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P830077–1904. Confidential. Drafted by Pierce. The meeting took place in Marville’s office.↩
  2. Barbados received $730,000 in economic assistance from the United States in FY 1977, but received less aid each successive year during the Carter Presidency. (USAID Greenbook) See footnote 3, Document 307.↩