Office of the Historian

45. Memorandum for the Record1

Washington, May 10, 1979

SUBJECT

  • Conversation, 9 May 1979

1. I discussed the briefings [less than 1 line not declassified] our respective Ambassadors conducted for the Presidents of Brazil and Venezuela.2 [less than 4 lines not declassified]

2. A brief discussion took place on Herrera [3 lines not declassified] The Vice President endorsed [less than 1 line not declassified] that Herrera was a likeable personality, and said he thought the President would enjoy working with him.

3. I mentioned Argentina and briefly noted that the war against terrorism had been won, but in the process a number of innocent people had been killed. Nevertheless, Argentina’s human rights performance is now improving.

4. In connection with human rights, I recalled the President’s statement to the Cabinet a year ago3 that while we must continue to press [Page 167] our human rights policy, we also needed to understand that many of these countries are our friends and that they have real problems. I said I didn’t think Argentina and Brazil perceived our policies as being implemented in that sense. In particular, I found three areas of concern:

a. The public report card aspect. This is particularly grating to the Brazilians who consider themselves a great power.

b. A lack of flexibility in our policy when a country does improve its performance. We seem to be unable to provide incentives.

c. The training of military people in the United States. Much of the merit of these training programs has been in exposing them to U.S. values, including our human rights values. Yet, in the name of human rights we are cutting them off from this exposure. In addition, we are creating a new generation of military people in key countries who will be oriented in other directions, and may possibly even be bitter toward the U.S.

5. The comment was made that most of these are statutory provisions. I said yes, but I thought some flexibility existed. The comment was also made that these were all good points, which should be conveyed to the Congress.

6. [1 paragraph (5 lines) not declassified]

7. [1 paragraph (4 lines) not declassified]

8. [1 paragraph (8 lines) not declassified]

Frank C. Carlucci
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence4
  1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Director of Central Intelligence, Job 81M00919R, Box 6, Folder 12: B–303 President 1 Jul–31 Dec 1979. Secret.↩
  2. Not found.↩
  3. Not further identified.↩
  4. Carlucci signed “FC” above his typed signature.↩