Office of the Historian

340. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, May 4, 1965, 5 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • Arms for Haiti

PARTICIPANTS

  • The Secretary
  • Rene Chalmers, Foreign Minister of Haiti
  • Andre Theard, Ambassador of Haiti
  • Miss von Thurn, ARA/CAR
  • Mr. Glenn, Interpreter

Foreign Minister Chalmers stated that the Government of Haiti lacks weapons and ammunition with which to defend itself against outside attack; he said that this problem is of particular concern to his government at present in view of the situation in the Dominican Republic.2 Chalmers stated that Haiti has made numerous efforts to obtain arms during the past year but that none of these efforts has been successful. He added, slowly and emphatically, “this will become a question”, repeating the statement several times. (Note: He did not mention specifically his governmentʼs several unsuccessful requests for U.S. military assistance nor did he make specific reference to the equally unsuccessful applications for munitions control export licenses. He also avoided mention of Haitiʼs attempt to smuggle weapons out of the United States.)

  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Haiti, Vol. IV. Confidential. Drafted by von Thurn. The memorandum is part II of V. The meeting was held in the Secretaryʼs office.↩
  2. A May 4 briefing memorandum from Vaughn to Secretary Rusk for this meeting recommended that the Secretary receive Chalmers, since “the need for Haitiʼs vote at the OAS is clear” and “Chalmers is one of the few MFM delegates who has expressed broad general support for our recent actions in the Dominican Republic.” (National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, POL HAITI–US)↩