Office of the Historian

41. Memorandum of conversation, December 12, among President Allessandri, President Kennedy, and other officials1

Part III (of 3)
December 12, 1962, 4:45 p.m.
[Facsimile Page 1]

SUBJECT

  • US Aid, and Relationship of EEC with LAFTA

PARTICIPANTS

  • Chile

    • President Alessandri
    • Foreign Minister Martinez
    • Finance Minister Mackenna
    • Senator Angel Faivovich
    • Ambassador Walter Muller
    • Ambassador Sergio Gutierrez
    • Budget Director Sergio Molina
    • Sr. José Zabala, CORFO, N.Y.
    • Sr. Alfonso Echevarria, (Interpreter)

  • United States

    • President Kennedy
    • Ambassador Charles Cole
    • Assistant Secretary Edwin Martin
    • Mr. Teodoro Moscoso, Coordinator, Alliance for Progress
    • Mr. Herbert May, ARA
    • Mr. Ralph Dungan, White House
    • Mr. Taylor G. Belcher, WST
    • Mr. John Robinson, LA/VC
    • Mr. Fernando Van Reigersberg, LS, (Interpreter)
    • Mr. Neil Seidenman, LS-(Interpreter)

While awaiting release of the joint communiqué, Mr. Moscoso told President Alessandri that the question of the use of counterpart funds had been taken up, following an unofficial request received one week before. He was able to say that $20 million would be released immediately, which hopefully would relieve pressures on Central Bank credit ceilings. Additional [Facsimile Page 2] funds would be available for 1963, including $10 million from the Treasury Stabilization Fund. Mr. Moscoso suggested it would be desirable for this information not to be made public, but hoped that advance knowledge of this assistance would be helpful to President Alessandri in dealing with Congress (on tax reform). The Treasury funds would be available pari passu with those of the IMF. [Typeset Page 93] Mr. Moscoso commented that the tax reform bill would be of urgent significance in this connection.

After approval of the communiqué, President Kennedy mentioned the possibility of the Latin American countries making a joint representation on behalf of LAFTA to General De Gaulle, perhaps through Messrs. Kubitschek and Lleras Camargo. This would be a direct approach separate from what the US alone or together with Latin America might say. De Gaulle is, of course, more interested in Africa than in Latin America, because of close former ties. So, the Latin American approach should be to stress the community of interests with Latin America, cultural affinities, and so on. A country-by-country approach would be too dispersed and weak. The best procedure would be to bring all of Latin America together through representatives such as Messrs. Kubitschek and Lleras Camargo.

  1. U.S. aid; relationship of EEC with LAFTA. Limited Official Use. 2 pp. Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, Chile, January–June, 1963.↩