711.35/10–246 AW
The Ambassador in Argentina (Messersmith) to the Acting Secretary of State
Dear Dean: In a recent letter to one of the higher officers of the Department (I am not able to say at the moment to whom it was addressed as we are unable to lay hands on it immediately in the files), I stated that there were now two reasons in addition to the original one which made it so important for us to straighten out our relations with the Argentine.
In that letter I stated that the President and the Secretary and the Department of State had wished to straighten out our problems with the Argentine through securing compliance by the Argentine with her inter-American commitments as this was imperative for the strengthening of the American picture and to make possible the Rio de Janeiro meeting and the negotiation of a defense pact, as well as the normalization of our relations with the Argentine being desirable for our general interest and that of this hemisphere. We were particularly interested in this because of the whole world situation which we had to face then and must face now.
I pointed out that it was my understanding of this situation which made me willing to accept this task.
As I pointed out in that letter, there are now two more reasons which make it desirable for us to straighten out this Argentine situation. One is that the Soviet Government is making this tremendous effort in South America and is doing everything to sabotage inter-American relationships. The blasts from Moscow against the proposed defense pact in the Americas, the criticism by Moscow and from certain quarters in the United States of the Bill submitted to the Congress which will enable us to implement the defense pact, and the [Page 322] constant attacks which are being made by Moscow and Soviet-controlled foci in other places against inter-American collaboration and against us and against our “imperialistic” designs, are all part of a pattern. There is no doubt that the inter-American system will remain under constant attack from Moscow, and there is increasing activity on the part of Moscow in the countries of the Americas. Following the Soviet pattern, they are not working so much through their Missions, although they are active enough, as they are through local organizations—either communist or to the most extreme left. In a good many of the American countries the situation leaves much to be desired in this respect, and the Soviet activity in Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba must give us cause for preoccupation for the economic situations in some of these countries is such that there is fertile ground for their activity. The Argentine and Colombia are really the only two countries in the other Americas today which we can depend upon completely to combat Soviet influence and penetration, and in an effective way.…
For this reason, I think it is increasingly important for us to straighten out our situation with the Argentine, for the Argentine is one of the countries in the Americas which can be depended upon to prevent communist penetration, and she will be prepared to collaborate in any sound measures among the American States to prevent communist penetration. As long as our relations with the Argentine are not on the normal and completely collaborative basis that they should be, we are hampered in any collaboration in this important field.
The second new factor which has arisen since it was decided that I should go to Buenos Aires is the fact that the British position in some ways is stronger now than before. In a series of letters to Will Clayton,27 I reported fully on the British-Argentine trade negotiation on sterling balances, meat prices, and the British railways. The negotiations almost broke down but, fortunately, a solution was found. Now that the solution has been found, the position of the British here has undoubtedly been strengthened. I am inclined to think that the British will play more fairly with us in the future than they have in the past in the whole American picture, and particularly in the Argentine, as I think the British have learned a lot and realize the importance of the American system to them in a way that they did not before. I think the new British Ambassador here, Sir Reginald Leeper, has done a good deal to make his government understand these situations better and I think Mr. Bevin28 understands this situation better than some of his predecessors did.
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With all good wishes [etc.]