455. Memorandum of a Conversation, Foreign Ministry, Bogotá, July 24, 1956, 3 p.m.1
SUBJECT
- Visit of the Secretary of State to the Colombian Minister for Foreign Affairs
PARTICIPANTS
- The Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles
- Assistant Secretary, Henry Holland
- Assistant Secretary, Carl W. McCardle
- Ambassador Philip W. Bonsal
- Mr. Maurice Bernbaum
- Mr. William B. Macomber
- Counselor of Embassy, C. Montagu Pigott
- Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Evaristo Sourdis
- Secretary General of the Ministry, Dr. Joaquín Piñeros Corpas
- Interpreter, Sr. José Maria Chavez
After the usual exchange of greetings, the Secretary of State addressed himself to Foreign Minister Sourdis expressing his regret that due to the pressure of events in countries neighboring upon or threatened by the policies of Soviet Russia he had not been able to travel in the American Republics as much as he had wished. He was happy that the Panama meeting had provided this present opportunity and the opportunity to know at least some of the American Republics on a better basis.
He had not come to Colombia to transact any business as he left this phase of relations in the able hands of Ambassador Bonsal and Assistant Secretary Holland. Short though it was, he considered this interlude as something of a vacation trip. He saw no serious problems existing between Colombia and the United States and what he had discussed with the President was mostly in the realm of personal matters. Unless the Foreign Minister had some particular problems that he wished to bring up at this time, the Secretary of State said he would like to consider the present reunion as a personal visit and an opportunity to become better acquainted.
Foreign Minister Sourdis said that he understood completely how busy the Secretary was and that therefore his visit to Colombia was doubly appreciated. He was very pleased to receive this visit of the Secretary as a gesture aimed at a better understanding of Colombia and its people. He hoped that the Secretary might find the [Page 924] occasion to repeat this visit and thus increase his knowledge and intimacy with Colombia and other Latin American countries. The Secretary was, said the Foreign Minister, an element of society to whom western culture could be especially thankful.
The Foreign Minister was happy to say that he saw no problems and to be assured that neither did the Secretary. He hoped that there never would be any. He wanted the Secretary to know how pleased he was to see and to sense the atmosphere of cordiality which attended the present visit. If anything, it increased the feeling of gratitude which the Colombian people felt for the Secretary’s gesture in coming here.
The Secretary of State, in acceptance of the Foreign Minister’s greeting, told him that the United States has shown the high esteem in which it holds Colombia by sending here one of its most able Ambassadors. The Ambassador in return spoke of the extreme cordiality which has surrounded all of our official relationships and said that the happy situation which we enjoy here is due in large part to the fact that the foreign relations of Colombia are in the hands of so great and human a personality.
Secretary Holland explained that his work took him to many Chanceries but in none did he sense greater sincerity, feel a greater sense of friendship, nor feel more at home than he had in this one. It was in consequence a special pleasure that he had been afforded in being able to accompany the Secretary of State to this Chancery. The Foreign Minister expressed a sense of emotion in being, as he said, overcome by this manifestation which he accepted not as a personal tribute but as a tribute to Colombia in recognition of its policy of the constant support of democratic ideals, of the support of United States policy in these respects and of its refusal to vacillate or to adopt a middle course on such fundamental issues.
The Secretary of State, addressing the Foreign Minister, said that with western civilization facing its greatest crisis in one thousand years the future of nations, in his belief, depended upon their basic faith. It was no accident, he said, that Far-Eastern leadership— democracy’s forward position—is in the hands of three dedicated Christian leaders—Syngman Rhee in Korea, Chiang Kai-shek in China and Ngo Dinh Diem in Vietnam2—in Vietnam in particular the building of a bulwark against communism was almost a miracle—a miracle which had its roots in a great demonstration of faith.
The Secretary believed that the good relations between the United States and Colombia were built upon the same sets of values. [Page 925] We were going in the same direction he said which made it easier to understand and thus to solve whatever problems might come up.
The Foreign Minister, referring to speeches which he attributed to the Secretary of State, said that in those speeches the Secretary had said that we must not only extend good diplomatic treatment one to the other but that we must come to understand each other’s attitudes toward life and each other’s spiritual outlooks since such fundamental aspects of national life dictate many of our actions. Happily, said the Foreign Minister, our respective outlooks are based on similar feelings, similar ideals and similar understanding. We are fighting for the same ends; hence, our relations tend to develop in a broader, more unselfish phase than were we to have somewhat different outlooks.
Some neutral world leaders, said the Secretary of State, are saying today that the international situation is only a struggle between two great powers. Those who say this could not be more wrong: it is a struggle between two very different principles. Despite the claims of some, the United States never has had and has not now any desire to aggrandize itself. This has been dramatically shown in the last fifty years when twice we had the world in our grasp and twice gave back to the conquered their liberty and returned home. People who say that this is only a power struggle must have some special purpose in so saying since the falseness of the statement is patent in itself.
In this respect, said the Foreign Minister, some people [are] inclined to feel that the United States wants to be more powerful than Russia. If this were the fact, the United States could have become so long ago. Never has any people sacrificed so much for its ideals as has the American people. This is a phase often overlooked. In this present situation the world must decide between two states of affairs—whether the individual shall be the slave of the state or whether the state shall remain the instrument of the individual. These two extremes are so far apart and so fundamentally different that neutrality in the face of such a decision is impossible.
Colombia within its capacities tries to support these ideals of the western world. The President of Colombia himself supports them and tries to cooperate on the side of the United States in maintaining them even though he is not always portrayed in this light by the press.
The Secretary of State then asked the Foreign Minister whether or not we were then expected at a wreath laying ceremony at the Bolivar monument whereupon the meeting adjourned thereto.
- Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversations: Lot 64 D 199. Confidential. Drafted by Pigott. Initialed by William B. Macomber, Jr., Special Assistant to the Secretary of State, indicating his approval.↩
- Presidents of the Republic of Korea, the Republic of China, and the Republic of Vietnam, respectively.↩