Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XII, American Republics

55. Memorandum of Conversation¹

Washington, February 7, 1963.

SUBJECT

• Conference of Central American Presidents, the President of Panama and President Kennedy in San Jose, March 18-20

PARTICIPANTS

• United States Government:
  • The President
  • Mr. Ralph A. Dungan, Special Assistant to the President
  • Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke, Chief of Protocol
  • Mr. V. Lansing Collins, Director, Office of Central American and Panamanian Affairs
• Costa Rican Government:
  • His Excellency Daniel Oduber, Foreign Minister
  • His Excellency Gonzalo Facio, Ambassador to the United States

President Kennedy opened the meeting by asking Foreign Minister Oduber what arrangements are being made for the meeting in San Jose.² Mr. Oduber said that a schedule was being worked out which he reviewed in brief with the President. He stressed that it was his hope to avoid bilateral talks in which demands would be made of the United States. He said that the substantive topics would be the economic integration of Central America and the threat posed to the economic and social development of Central America by the “reactionary” Soviet dominated Castro regime. Mr. Oduber described in some detail the eventual hope of the Central Americans that in the next few years a customs union and a monetary unit in Central America could be established and that in ten years a Central American and Caribbean customs union could include the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad, and even eventually Colombia and Venezuela. The Central American and Caribbean customs union would have a population of nearly 40 million people and would afford an opportunity for a vast economic and social program. Mr. Oduber described this 10 year plan as the dream of the liberal group in the Caribbean, of which he and his friends in Costa Rica were a part, as were Presidents Betancourt, Villeda and President-Elect Bosch with Governor Munoz-Marin as senior statesman. Mr. Oduber, in reply to a question from the President, said that the six Central American Presidents would meet in San Jose the day before President Kennedy arrived and that, furthermore, the Central American Foreign Ministers and Ministers of Economy planned to meet in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, February 12 and 13. He indicated that out of the Tegucigalpa meeting should come a report of Central American integration so far, a statement of the intention to achieve customs union and a monetary unit within a few years, and an assertion that this indicated that the Central American countries were faithfully and promptly carrying out the directives of Punta del Este and were thus deserving of special treatment. The Tegucigalpa paper would conclude with a request to the President of his opinion of this program and of his support for the program and further social and economic development in the area. The position in the document will be taken that the Castro regime in its present form under Soviet domination with Soviet troops, etc., in Cuba represented a reactionary threat to the Alliance for Progress and the social and economic development of Central America.

Mr. Oduber indicated that he felt the Cuban situation could become dangerous. The President replied saying that though Mr. Khrushchev had promised to remove Soviet forces in Cuba only a relatively small number had been taken out so far. The President said that we might see a diminution of these forces in the next month or so but that it was equally possible that a new Cuban crisis might involve an even greater confrontation than had the last. The President said that in any event the support of the Latin American countries in the OAS, as in October,³ was vital. President Kennedy then asked Mr. Oduber what the Central Americans thought should be done about Cuba. Mr. Oduber said that there were a number of views. Presidents Yd#goras of Guatemala and Somoza of Nicaragua favor an outright invasion while Oduber and his friends favor the strengthening and increasing of present non-military pressures and the training and equipping of guerrillas and saboteurs in the hope of bringing down Castro within the year. The President injected a word of caution at this point saying that the Soviets had helped Castro establish a police state which was highly efficient and that we had not had too much good fortune with guerrillas and saboteurs. The President also expressed the hope that the Central American nations could make some kind of declaration about Cuba prior to his arrival in San Jose so that it could not be alleged that the Central Americans were being drawn by the United States into an attack on Cuba. Mr. Oduber agreed to try to get something like this out of the Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Tegucigalpa which might be issued by the Presidents in Central America the day before President Kennedy arrives there or might be issued by the Foreign Ministers after Tegucigalpa. In any event it was agreed that the theme would be recaptured in the Declaration of San Jose but in the sense of Soviet-Castroism impeding the social and economic revolution in Central America under the Alliance for Progress.

Mr. Oduber also expressed the hope to the President that he would address the students of the University of Costa Rica.

The President expressed the hope that we could discover some new themes to emphasize in the Declaration of San Jose, falling back on the re-emphasis of old themes if necessary. It was generally agreed that a number of new themes could be found.

In discussing the question of the association of other areas to the Central American Common Market President Kennedy asked Mr. Oduber whether President Bosch of the Dominican Republic was going to attend the San Jose Conference. Oduber said that it had been his intention to invite him but that Guatemala had refused to consider this as there were no diplomatic relations between Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Mr. Oduber went on to say, however, that there was a little bit more to it than that. Guatemala is opposed to Jamaica and Trinidad joining the OAS because of its fear that this will prejudice its rights to British Honduras and consequently Guatemala is at the moment opposed to any further extension of the Central American Common Market system. Mr. Oduber hoped to be able to change this position soon.

1. Source: Department of State, Presidential Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 66 D 149, Jan-Mar 63. Secret. Drafted by Collins and approved by the White House on February 12.
2. Reference is to President Kennedy’s meeting with the Presidents of the Central American Republics and Panama in San Jose, Costa Rica, March 18-20; see Document 58.
3. Reference is to Latin American support for the United States during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962.