Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, American Republics: Central and South America, Volume VII

434. Letter From the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Murphy) to the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Davis)¹

Washington, July 5, 1955.

Dear Admiral Davis: For a number of months, representatives of the Government of Colombia including the President of that country, have strongly complained that the grant military assistance provided to Colombia has been insufficient to permit Colombia to assume a military role in hemisphere defense commensurate with its legitimate aspirations and military capabilities. Colombia has based a very large part of its argument for additional grant assistance on the ground that it has a legitimate and preferential claim to additional assistance, because Colombia was the only Latin American country which contributed military units for the United Nations action in Korea.

The Defense Department, in a letter of February 4, 1955,² addressed by you to Mr. Frederick E. Nolting, Jr., advised the State Department that it could not consider favorably the furnishing of all or any of the additional assistance requested by Colombia. This letter stated further that the Department of Defense had cooperated in permitting the retention of U.S. furnished equipment by the Colombian infantry battalion in Korea, and pointed out that such action had resulted in a sizable increase in the total amount of grant assistance provided the Colombian Army. These views of the Defense Department were fully communicated by the State Department to the Colombian Government.

A telegram of July 1, 1955³ from our Ambassador in Bogota states, in part, as follows: (a) the U.S. Government has taken credit for the fact that weapons, vehicles and other equipment of the Colombian battalion which fought in Korea were turned over to the Colombians; (b) the fact is that the equipment provided the Colombians is not that which they had used in Korea; (c) equipment apparently was hastily shipped from Pusan depots; (d) it reached Colombia in very bad condition with a high percentage of it unserviceable, as indicated by an inspection made by a technical team from the Caribbean Defense Command in the Canal Zone last March; (e) since then, no remedial action has been taken in spite of frequent contact between U.S. military missions in Colombia and the Caribbean Defense Command.

I feel that in the interest of maintaining harmonious relations with the Government of Colombia you will be as anxious as I to ascertain the facts in this case, so that, if the information provided by the Embassy should be confirmed, immediate action can be taken to repair, replace or supplement U.S. equipment now in possession of the Colombian battalion. In view of the obvious political implications of this matter, I would suggest, further, that the Defense Department authorize the State Department to inform the Colombian Government at the earliest possible moment that a U.S. military investigation will be made of the equipment provided the Colombian battalion.

Sincerely yours,

Robert Murphy⁴

1. Source: Department of State, Holland Files: Lot 57 D 295, Colombia. Drafted by Spencer on July 1 and by Holland and Murphy on July 2.
2. See footnote 7, Document 424.
3. Not further identified.
4. Printed from a copy which bears this typed signature.