Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The American Republics, Volume VII

832.24/10–1244

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle) to President Roosevelt

[Washington,] October 12, 1944.

You have been told informally about the crisis in Brazilian transport. It is now approaching the breakdown stage. We sent observers, including a competent man from O. D. T.,¹¹ who confirmed this conclusion: see more formal memorandum attached.¹² Vargas has now sent a special representative here about it.

Bluntly, they need 7,000 trucks and 1,500 diesel motor buses, to be delivered before July 1. A thorough personal study demonstrates to me an absolute necessity to get this done. Nor have we time to repeat the six months’ wearisome procedure which produced nothing. The Secretary sends the attached request for a directive from you. This will not cut into military supplies, though it may slow up the American domestic program.

I cannot promise that O. D. T. will not oppose. But this is not a situation we can fool with; Caffery and others say the stake might very well be the continuance in power of the Brazilian Government.

Adolf A. Berle, Jr.

11. John F. Winchester, Office of Defense Transportation.
12. To this memorandum, not printed, is attached a note as follows: “Flimsy endorsed CH, OK, FDR.”