Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XIII, Western Europe and Canada

340. Memorandum From Secretary of State Rusk to President Kennedy⁰

Washington, May 23, 1962.

SUBJECT

• The Azores

With reference to your memorandum of May 21,¹ we hope shortly to work out a position for our negotiations with Portugal on the Azores base, taking into consideration the useful thoughts contributed by Adlai Stevenson and Dean Acheson.² We will, of course, discuss this further with you prior to undertaking actual negotiations which need not be until around the end of June or the first part of July. In this connection, I might note that no revision of the details of the present agreement is desired by us, nor, as far as we know, by the Portuguese. Thus, negotiations on the base agreement itself simply involve a decision by the Portuguese whether they are willing to extend the present expiration date of December 31, 1962.

In the meanwhile, I believe that one of our first tasks is to attempt at least in some degree to dispel the exaggerated Portuguese suspicions regarding our involvement with the Angolan dissidents. I attempted this with Nogueira at Athens³ and we are following up through Ambassador Elbrick at Lisbon. Perhaps if this miasma of suspicion, little of which is based on fact, can in some degree be dispelled, we can create a slightly better atmosphere for initiating negotiations.

As you know, Dantas, the Brazilian Foreign Minister, is taking a helpful and constructive interest in this whole question of Portugal and the future of its overseas territories. He will again shortly be seeing Nogueira. I am hopeful that his efforts may bear some fruit. In the meantime, forces also seem to be at work in Portugal itself, and, while we cannot be sanguine, there is always the possibility that there might before too long be developments more favorable to our interests.

We also propose taking advantage of all possible opportunities to point out to the other NATO countries the importance to them of the Azores base. We will impress upon them that this is not just a bilateral matter between the United States and Portugal, and that it is just as much in their interest as it is in ours that Portugal be brought around to take a constructive attitude toward the renegotiation of the Azores base agreement.

I agree that we must at least contemplate the possibility that we will not be successful in our efforts to obtain renewal of the agreement. The JCS have made studies of the possible alternatives to use of the Azores base. [3-1/2 lines of source text not declassified] however, they have instructed MATS further to look into the question of alternate routes. I am informing Secretary McNamara of your question and we will be discussing the matter further with Defense.

[Here follows a section on West New Guinea.]

Dean Rusk

0. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Portugal, Azores Base. Secret. No drafting information appears on the source text.
1. In it the President stressed the need to work out a U.S. position on the Azores base before negotiations were begun and to explore the role that NATO countries might play in the discussions. (Ibid.)
2. In an April 25 memorandum to Rusk, Acheson accepted a connection between the base negotiations and Angola. (Ibid.) In letters to the President on April 26 and May 10 Stevenson stressed the need to separate the issues and involve NATO in the base discussions. Copies of all three documents are ibid.
3. See Document 338.