15. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Merchant) to Secretary of State Herter0
The meeting with the President this afternoon on the New York Times Guatemala base story1 was attended by Messrs. Gates, Douglas, Dulles, Gray, Willauer, Mann, J.C. King, General Goodpaster, and myself.
After considerable discussion the President decided that we should make no statement to the press today on the matter and continue to refuse to comment.2 The question of a statement, however, can be re-examined if news interest persists and grows.
The statement which we had agreed upon in advance and showed to the President3 was modified during the course of the discussion by inserting after the words in the first sentence “—to train a small number of men” the additional words “including some Cuban refugees,—”. The President also struck out the opening clause in the second sentence “in the face of this threat.”
Two questions were raised indicating weaknesses in the statement, the first being the reference to the purpose of training as being purely defensive and designed to cope with infiltration and subversion. Mr. Gates in particular felt that this was misleading and could cause us later trouble.
The second point discussed and criticized was the implication in the second sentence that the special training was merely an extension of the conventional training program whereas actually it was carried out in a different area under different trainers of a different character.
Concerning the meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tomorrow, after considerable discussion (during the course of which the President indicated that he felt we allowed ourselves to be pushed around to an unwarranted extent by Congressional committees) the President ruled that Mr. Dulles should testify but that he should insist on no record being kept and no one else being present other than members of the committee and the Chief Clerk. The billed purpose for the committee meeting would be a general intelligence round-up by Mr. Dulles similar to those given in past years.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 711.56314/1-1061. Secret. Drafted by Merchant.↩
- The New York Times on January 10 ran a front-page article under the headline “U.S. Helps Train an Anti-Castro Force at Secret Guatemalan Air-Ground Base.”↩
- In response to questions concerning The New York Times story, Department of State spokesman Lincoln White denied any knowledge of a base to train Cuban exiles in Guatemala. (The New York Times, January 11, 1961)↩
- Not found.↩