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  4. Document 1079

811.24523/4–245

Memorandum by the Chairman of the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (Dunn) to the Secretary of State

[Washington,] April 2, 1945.

Pursuant to the directives of the President, dated 7 January and 1 February 1944,30 the Joint Chiefs of Staff have determined that the United States requires the following post-war military base rights in Peru:

1.
The general right for United States military aircraft to operate into and away from El Pato Airbase, Talara, and to fly over Peruvian territory en route to or away from said base, subject only to the same regulations or restrictions as may be imposed on Peruvian military aircraft.
2.
The specific right:
a.
As the maximum desired—jointly with the government of Peru, to occupy, control, improve, maintain and operate El Pato Airbase and its facilities, including the essential communications systems, aids to navigation, radar or other defense installations, and to station thereat the personnel required to carry out such a joint undertaking.
b.
As the minimum acceptable—the right to utilize El Pato Airbase and its facilities with the same freedom as is accorded to military aircraft of Peru, and to install there such additional facilities or make such improvements as may from time to time be necessary for the operation of United States military aircraft and for the defense of the western hemisphere.
3.
Exemption from Peruvian taxes, duties or imposts of any kind of all United States personnel or materiel imported into or located in Peru in connection with the operation of the base or the exercise of the other rights obtained.

The Secretaries of War and the Navy concur in the above determination by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and request that negotiations for an agreement in this matter be initiated with the government of Peru at the earliest moment you deem favorable.

For the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee:
James Clement Dunn
  1. These were general directives to initiate negotiations for military bases; for texts, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. vii, pp. 546 and 550.↩