FOREIGN RELATIONS, 19.50,-VOLUME I


action, General Ridgway said that he felt that the immediate objective
should be to obtain a clear and definite decision, shared by both State
and Defense. He -said that it was his experience that the immediate
response of- the Latin Americans to any positive move on military
policy by us was to ask us what assistance we -would give to any steps
they might take, He felt that we must be absolutely clear on what
assistance we are prepared to make available before we should run
the risk of arousing hopes and anticipations which we may later be
unable to fulfill. If a favorable decision on this matter is reached,
General Ridgway believed that the Defense Board might well under-
take, to develop plans for an integrated Latin American force. (He
mentioned in passing the apparent reversal of the State'and Defense
positions from the earlier postwar period, during which the Depart-
ment of State appeared definitely opposed to any military aid to
Latin America which the Department of Defense then favored.)
   General Ridgway said that he-was meeting that afternoon with the
 other members of the U.S. Delegation to the Defense Board and would
 discuss with them the matters brought up by Ambassador Warren.
As we left, General Ridgway again emphasized that his main irm-
mediate objective was to obtain from Defense and State a clear cut
and fully agreed military policy toward Latin America before making
-any moves which, for lack of such definiteness, might later prove
-embarrassing.

720.5 MAP/l-1550.
-Memorandum by the Officer in Charge, Special Political Problems, in
         the Office of Regional American Affairs (Jamison)

SECRET                          [WASHINGTON,] November 13, 1950.
Problem
   Should legislative authorization and appropriations be sought to
 pay the costs of providing certain types of military training and
 assistance to the other American Republics?
 Discussion
   Under present legislation, the United States is severely limited in
its ability to assist the people and governments of the other American
Republics in fulfilling the positive roles which many of them wish to
take, and are potentially capable of taking, in the struggle of the free
world against communist aggression. This is in sharp contrast with
the military assistance being given to governments in other areas of
-the world in the form of outright grants. Military supplies and equip-
ment now made available to Latin American governments, with the


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