Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–11, Part 2, Documents on South America, 1973–1976

386. Telegram 11890 From the Embassy in Venezuela to the Department of State¹

Caracas, December 2, 1974, 2039Z.

11890. Subj: President Perez on US-Venezuelan Relations: Possible Dialogues.

1. At breakfast this morning, the President complained at the “hard line” which the USG apparently wanted to take against Venezuela. I said so far as I knew, there was no special “hard line” and that we were pleased at the initiative of FonMin Schacht in Quito when he had suggested to Deputy Secretary Ingersoll the preparation of an agenda and the initiation of serious talks to lay out the course of future US-Venezuelan relations.

2. Presdient said that Venezuela was not like the Arab countries which used oil as a political weapon. Venezuela had its own program for national improvement and sincerely desired to be a loyal friend of the US. He pointed out that the forthcoming nationalization of the iron ore industry (Caracas 11830) would be the precursor of similar arrangements with the foreign petroleum companies and that he thought it would be clear to all that Venezuela intended to be reasonable. Therefore, he found it difficult to understand why the US wished to follow a “hard line.” I said we did not and that it should not be beyond the realm of ingenuity on both sides to lay out principles governing our economic relations which would be beneficial to both countries. Here I mentioned the transfer of technology and the various ways in which the US could be helpful to Venezuela in realizing President Perez’s ambitious program for economic development as outlined in his speech of last April 29.

3. The President questioned me several times as to whether I would be going up to Washington next month, and I said that so far as I knew I was still scheduled to attend a meeting of Chiefs of Mission early in January. I also mentioned the forthcoming US-Venezuelan symposium to be held under the auspices of the Fletcher School Jan 26–29. I said if both govts could see to it that delegations on each side were made up of high caliber participants drawn from govt as well as private sector, it might be possible informally and without commitment at Fletcher to trace out recommendations for the future management of our relations and which could then be studied by govts and perhaps used as the basis for eventual official agreements. To this suggestion the President agreed. He said, however, that he thought it would be unwise for the Fletcher symposium to be attended by [our?] press on either side because this would tempt speakers to plead to the gallery and thus the meeting would degenerate into a nationalistic debate which could be of no benefit to either side.

McClintock

1. Summary: McClintock assured Pérez that the U.S. Government did not have a “hard line” policy towards Venezuela.

   Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D740349–0499. Secret; Limdis. In telegram 11830 from Caracas, November 29, the Embassy informed the Department that U.S. mining companies and the Venezuelan Government were near a settlement of a dispute over expropriated U.S. holdings. (Ibid., D740347–0799)