Office of the Historian

424. Memorandum of Conversation1

New York, August 1, 1962.

SUBJECT

  • Peruvian Situation

PARTICIPANTS

  • Former President Prado, Peru
  • Edwin M. Martin, Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs

In order to avoid the press, President Prado chose to remain on his plane. Our conversation of 20 minutes or so was thus entirely private, except for 15 or 20 cleaning people sweeping and dusting around us.

President Prado seemed in excellent health and reasonably good spirits. He condemned the junta takeover and the charges of fraud as equally without justification. He praised the role that Ambassador Loeb had played and thought there was no good reason why he should not go back to Peru. He felt the United States position and the President’s statement2 had been enormously valuable in Peru and to future developments in the hemisphere.

I outlined briefly the conditions we were seeking from the junta as a basis for resumption of relations. He felt they were very sound, though he would have stressed somewhat more than we did the inclusion of civilians in the Cabinet. In response to my question he thought that all one could hope for at this time was technicians rather than politicians.

I outlined our argument against the Venezuelan MFM proposal, and he agreed that we were right.

I indicated our concern about a move by the Communists to take over the APRA Unions. He thought this was one of the most important dangers and deserved all the attention we could give it. He felt the junta was anti-Communist but naive.

I asked him how he felt about General Bossio who had shown himself rather favorably disposed toward APRA. He expressed the view that the General was not to be trusted at all.

He was most effusive in his appreciation for the President’s greetings which I had conveyed to him. They obviously touched him very deeply in his present situation. I said it was a personal message which the President did not propose to release and thought best he not give to press, though he could of course say, if he wished, that President had sent him a message of good wishes.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 723.00/8-1662. Confidential. Drafted by E.M. Martin. The meeting took place at Idlewild Airport, New York City.↩
  2. For text, see Department of State Bulletin, August 6, 1962. p. 214.↩