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_ WESTERN HEMISPHERE DEFENSE — 609

of hemisphere defense and the security interests of the United States.
While reference is made to certain specific paragraphs in the NSC
paper, the comment applies generally to the paper as a whole.

THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES AND THE NATURE OF THE

| | | | RIO TREATY .

1. Reference is made in paragraph 16 of the NSC paper to the in-
terest of the United States in the Organization of American States
“as a regional defense arrangement”. | | |
_ The Organization of American States is much more than this. The
inter-American system has been in process of evolution for many
decades. The Charter of the Organization of American States, which
was signed at the Bogota Conference in 1948, states in Article 1: _

“The American States establish by this Charter the international
Organization that they have developed to achieve an order of peace
and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collabora-
tion, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity and
their independence. Within the United N ations, the Organization of
American States is a regional agency.” — | ne
_ The essential purposes of the OAS, as set forth in its Charter, are:
(a) to strengthen the peace and security of the continent; (6) to pre-
vent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure the pacific settlement
of disputes that may arise among the Member States; (c) to provide
for common action on the part of those States in the event of ageres-
sion; (d@) to seek the solution of political, juridical and economic
problems that may arise among them; and (e) to promote, by co-
operative action, their economic, social and cultural development.

Among the principles reaffirmed by the American States are that
the solidarity of the American States and the high aims which are
sought through it require the political organization of those States
on the basis of the effective exercise of representative democracy ; that
_ the American States condemn war[s] of aggression: victory does not
give rights; that an act of aggression against one American state is an
act of aggression against all of the other American States; that con-
troversies of an international character arising between two or more
American States shall be settled by peaceful procedures; that social
justice and social security are bases of lasting peace; and that economic
cooperation is essential to the common welfare and prosperity of the
peoples of the continent. — a a a |

2. Paragraph 9 of the NSC paper states that the sacrifice of gains
secured in the field of Latin American military collaboration “would
tend to nullify the inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance”.

Paragraph 14 states: “The Latin American nations must be ready
and able to assume their military obligations under the Inter-American
Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance in order to ensure the uninterrupted