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

79. Memorandum From the Deputy Director for Operations of the International Cooperation Administration (FitzGerald) to the General Counsel of That Agency (Rubin)¹

Washington, August 21, 1961.

SUBJECT

• Provision of Military Assistance to Central American Countries; your memorandum of August 16, 1961²

I am very skeptical of the proposal to furnish military assistance to Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. There is no demonstration that the provision of this equipment will significantly increase the capabilities of the armed forces to deal with Castro-Communist type of infiltration or subversion. The addition of the equipment contemplated inevitably will raise the operation and maintenance cost of the armed forces and further divert local government resources from constructive economic development. The draft determination contains no estimate of this additional cost nor whether the countries concerned are willing and able to meet it. Finally, even if they are so willing, there is no evaluation of the relative priority of the use of the country’s resources for its military establishment as compared to its use for economic or social development.

The same considerations apply also to the proposal to furnish Haiti with almost a million dollars worth of military equipment. In addition, there is the question of our posture in supporting such a repressive regime as that of President Duvalier. Finally, the draft determination states that “the present regime has decimated and humiliated the armed forces by frequent purges …” In this situation it hardly seems likely that the armed forces could make any effective use of the proposed equipment but rather it would be used by Duvalier for the purpose of supporting his own regime.³

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 720.5-MSP/8-2961. Secret. Filed with an August 29 memorandum from Rubin to Kyle.
2. Not found.
3. Rubin’s August 29 memorandum, cited in the source note, states that the ICA position was as stated in FitzGerald’s memorandum, but that ICA would concur if the Department of State judged that political considerations required the proposed Determinations, which Kyle had sent to Rubin with an August 15 memorandum. (Department of State, Central Files, 720.5-MSP/8-2961)