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

420. Memorandum From Albert H. Gerberich of the Office of South American Affairs to the Director of the Office (Atwood)²

Washington, January 20, 1955.

SUBJECT

• Lunch at Colombian Embassy; discussion of pending problems

Bennett, Krieg, Blankinship³ and I had luncheon with Ambassador Zuleta today. He gave us a rather bad time.

He practically went down the list of pending problems, beginning in the middle of the luncheon.

1 —Mission to discuss obtaining military equipment. He brought this one up first and Mr. Blankinship gave him briefly the information contained in Mr. Spencer’s memo to you.⁴ He was visibly displeased and said even Guatemala had received more military assistance than Colombia in the last 5 or 10 years. At this point Chaves⁵ put in, “Also Russia”. Krieg quietly questioned the statement so far as it concerned Guatemala, but the Ambassador would not back down. (He also could not answer Krieg’s question as to just what military equipment Guatemala received.) He said that of all the 20 republics, Colombia ranked 12th in amount of assistance despite its contribution to the war in Korea.⁶

2 —FCN Treaty. He has evidently gotten word that Kalijarvi is opposing renegotiation of the Treaty, for he questioned us a lot about him. We told him we are going to have a meeting tomorrow and will be able to give him an answer afterward on reopening negotiations.

3 —Visit of Deputy Secretary of Defense Anderson to Colombia. He asked if Mr. Holland had received any word from Mr. Anderson as to whether he would make the trip in place of Secretary Wilson. We had to put him off on that one. (Miss Karydakis⁷ tells me Mr. Holland is awaiting a reply from Mr. Anderson.)

4 —Paz de Rio.⁸ He complained that the Eximbank is trying to oblige them to accept a $10,000,000 credit for a “planta de laminación” that is antiquated and not susceptible of expansion. The McKee Construction Co. of Cleveland submitted an alternate plan, which the Bank has been studying for a month and now says is incomplete, and McKee must furnish it with additional data. He said Colombia has been offered a $25,000,000 credit by the Banque de Paris et Pays Bas, and he thinks in the end Colombia will accept the French credit.

N.B. In enlarging on the Paz de Rio matter he confirmed what we have previously heard: that he went to Senator Holland⁹ of Florida and urged him to support the Colombian application to the Eximbank. He also mentioned Senator Chavez¹⁰ by name in this same connection, without saying outright that he tried to enlist him also in Colombia’s support. It seems very probable, therefore, that he did so.

5 —Talks with Protestants. He said that Charles Taft¹¹ is going to hand him a paper next week with the acceptance of his suggestions regarding the definition of the rights of Protestants in Colombia. As soon as he has this in his hands he is going personally to submit it to President Rojas in Bogota and tell him he has only to proclaim that the U.S. Protestant leaders accept the formula, and the religious difficulties are surmounted. The statement that he is going personally to Bogota is naturally of great interest to us.

In the course of his one-way conversation Ambassador Zuleta informed us that the Rio Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was an inspiration of his;¹² he passed it along to Eduardo Santos,¹³ who sold it to F.D.R.,¹⁴ who made it U.S. policy. Zuleta also told us that at the San Franciso Conference he observed that it was imperative to get clearance from Alger Hiss or Leo Pasvolsky¹⁵ beforehand in order to get anywhere.

2. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 721.5–MSP/1–2055. Confidential.
3. Byron E. Blankinship, Officer in Charge of North Coast Affairs in OSA.
4. Dated January 14, not printed. In it Spencer recommended informing Ambassador Zuleta Angel that an increase in grant military assistance would necessitate an amendment to the secret bilateral military plan between the United States and Colombia. Such an amendment would require high-level discussion in the Department of Defense. Spencer added that funds for additional assistance were not available in the current fiscal year. (Department of State, Central Files, 721.5–MSP/1–1455)
5. José Maria Chaves, Counselor of the Colombian Embassy.
6. A Department of State press release, dated October 14, 1950, stated that the U.N. Command in Korea had accepted Colombia’s offer of a manned frigate. For text of the release, see Department of State Bulletin, October 16, 1950, p. 606. On November 14, 1950, Colombia offered an infantry battalion for participation in the Korean conflict. Documentation on the participation of the American Republics in the Korean conflict is printed in Foreign Relations, 1950, vol. I, pp. 599 ff.
7. Mabel Karydakis, Holland’s personal secretary.
8. A steel mill was located at Paz de Rió in the department of Boyacá.
9. Spessard L. Holland (D.–Fla.).
10. Dennis Chavez (D.–N.M.).
11. Charles P. Taft, Mayor of Cincinnati and President of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America from 1947 to 1948.
12. The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was signed at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 2, 1947, by the representatives of the United States and 18 countries of Latin America. It was ratified by the President of the United States on December 12, 1947 and entered into force on December 3, 1948. For text, see 62 Stat. 1681.
13. Eduardo Santos, President of Colombia, 1938–1942.
14. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, 1932–1945.
15. Alger Hiss was Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs in the Department of State from 1945 to 1947. Leo Pasvolsky was Chairman of the Coordination Committee of the U.N. Conference on International Organization which met at San Francisco, April 25–June 26, 1945.