Office of the Historian

247. Memorandum for the Record1

Washington, February 28, 1964.

SUBJECT

  • Conversation between Chief and Deputy Chief, WHD with Assistant Secretary Mann, on 28 February 1964
1.
On 28 February 1964 Chief, WHD advised the undersigned of his conversation with Mr. Mann in which Mr. Mann expressed a desire to have the Special Group approached for the purpose of obtaining its approval for election support of the Democratic Front [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] Mr. Mann’s rationale was that Duran, being more pliable—from the American viewpoint—in economic matters than Frei: that American copper companies would conceivably be ready to invest five hundred million dollars in Chile as they were prepared to do in 1958, that Duran might draw further votes away from Allende, all this would point to the desirability of helping [name not declassified] at this time. Mr. Mann felt that the [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] injection recently given [name not declassified] when compared with the [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] a year given the CD’s was out of balance; Mr. Mann felt that the support to the CD should be continued because they too offer strong competition to Allende.
2.
Chief, WHD requested the undersigned to think about the best way to get a paper to the Special Group at the earliest possible date.2
[name not declassified]3
  1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Job 90–347R, DDO Files, [file name not declassified]. Secret. Drafted in the Western Hemisphere Division.↩
  2. In telegram 04580 to Santiago, February 28, the CIA reported that a proposal to increase financial support to the Democratic Front would be submitted to the Special Group on March 5. The CIA also indicated that the administration intended to propose a cutback in the subsidy to the Christian Democratic Party. (Ibid.) The Special Group, however, did not meet on March 5 and failed to discuss Chile at its next meeting, March 12. (Department of State, INR/IL Historical Files, Special Group Files, Meetings)↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩