217. Editorial Note
On May 16, 1961, Brazilian Finance Minister Clemente Mariani called on President Kennedy to express appreciation for U.S. financial assistance to Brazil. During the conversation, President Kennedy stressed the importance of inter-American isolation of Castro, whom he called “for all practical purposes an agent of international communism,” and he pointed out the difficulty of agreement when President Quadros asserted a “strongly divergent view.” After Mariani noted that Quadros had been moving away from his previous position in favor of Castro, he promised to report fully on the conversation to Quadros. The memorandum of conversation is in Department of State, Presidentʼs Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 66 D 149. It is printed in full in volume XII, pages 435–436.