30. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, January 30, 19561
Washington, January 30, 1956
SUBJECT
- Military Grant and Reimbursable Assistance in Latin America
PARTICIPANTS
- ARA—Mr. Lyon
- AR—Mr. Sanders
- AR—Mr. Sayre
- Defense:
- Mr. McGuire
- Brig. Gen. Wilson
- Col. Hanford
- Commander Kitteridge
The conversation was exploratory to identify the problems, and conclusions reached were tentative.
The following are the principal conclusions:
- 1.
- The Defense Department representatives stated that the force bases established by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the grant program stand, that there is no reason to recommend a change, and that the present force bases constitute a military need for Hemisphere defense.
- 2.
- The Defense representatives know of no reason to believe that United States implementation of the grant aid agreements is not satisfactory to realize the objective of the grant program.
- 3.
- Col. Hanford said that Defense would be interested in agreements with Mexico and Argentina, if it should become possible to obtain them.
- 4.
- Gen. Wilson stated that the Department of Defense is recommending changes in the Mutual Security legislation to improve performance in reimbursable assistance, but these changes were not specified.
- 5.
- The Department of State representatives pointed out that total Latin American purchases of military equipment are small and asked if it would not be possible to find in the mutual defense assistance funds the small annual amount (some $20 to $30 million) needed to finance an orderly credit program. Mr. McGuire said that this would not be possible since all of the grant funds are needed for other purposes.
- 6.
- The Department of State representatives described the need of having a well managed reimbursable assistance program for the [Page 243] main purpose of encouraging the Latin Americans to channel their military expenditures into useful lines for Hemisphere defense and internal security. Mr. McGuire expressed the belief that it might be desirable to request the Joint Chiefs of Staff to specify the forces most needed in each country for Hemisphere defense and internal security, beyond the force bases for the grant program. General Wilson knew of no reason why this could not be done. The objective would be for the United States to limit credit and cash sales to the development of these forces which would be in addition to those coming under the grant program.
It was agreed that another meeting should be held soon, and Col. Hanford stated that he would contact the Department of State representatives to suggest a time.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 720.5/3–756. Secret. Drafted by Sanders. Attached to a memorandum from Sanders to Lyon, dated March 7. In the memorandum, Sanders stated that although a State–Defense “working group” to resolve outstanding problems in U.S. military relations with Latin America, as suggested by Hoover in July 1955, had not been formally established, such a group “in effect” did exist. It resulted from the meeting between Holland and Gray on December 12, 1955 (see Document 29), at which Gray asked McGuire to coordinate Defense’s views and then to contact Holland. To Sanders’ knowledge, however, McGuire had not conveyed Defense’s position, and this meeting of January 30 was a followup. (Department of State, Central Files, 720.5/3–756)↩