The Two Americas
By GEORGE BRINSMEAD
IT has been announced that Mr. Dean Acheson will shortly be visiting Brazil. It is hoped that this evidence of the Secretary of State's interest in hemispheric affairs may help to arrest the very noticeable deterioration in the relations be- tween the U.S.A. and the Latin American republics. In recent decades the people of Latin America—now numbering approxi- mately 153 million, or about two million more than the popu- lation of the U.S.A.—have benefited enormously from U.S. financial and technical aid; but they not at all grateful. Indeed, there is more criticism of the U.S.A. today than at any time since the Cuban war, and Washington, preoccupied with other matters, has omitted to counteract this growing resentment South of the Border.
Of course the local nationalists and Communists in each of the republics miss no opportunity of maligning Uncle Sam. The Argentines are the self-appointed leaders of the movement outside their own frontiers. In February an international labour conference in Paraguay decided to set up a " Commis- sion for Labour Unity in Latin America," with offices in Buenos Aires. The congress was attended by delegations from the principal South American countries, all of whom agreed to undertake " joint action against capitalist aggression." The general spirit of the meeting was evoked by the Peronista trade-union leader, Sr. Jose G. Espejo, whose address was directed primarily against the U.S.A.
The North Americans, not unnaturally, are inclined to take it for granted that countries which accept their largesse will be grateful and co-operative. Therefore they often cause dis- pleasure by acting without making adequate allowance for independent Latin American points of view. In the endeavour to check inflation at home, they have fixed ceiling prices for certain products imported from Latin America, such as copper, tin and coffee. The Chileans, Bolivians and Brazilians—whose economies largely depend on the export of these three com- modities—resent Washington's unilateral action. Many reasonable Latin Americans consider it illogical, to say the least, that the U.S.A., while urging and assisting in the develop- ment of the natural resources of the republics, should simul- taneously offer them a price for their basic raw materials that (it is claimed) does not cover the present cost of production. Extremists maintain that their northern neighbour is guilty of heartless exploitation. , A second cause of resentment is Washington's demand for " equality of sacrifice " in the anti-Communist struggle. Com- munism still seems to be a minor danger in most parts of Latin America, and local publicists argue that there can be no question of " equality," since the programme of resistance to the U.S.S.R. was drawn up by the North Americans in their own interests. An Uruguayan newspaper has argued that the international disputes of the present era belong to the northern hemisphere, where the coveted modern sources of power— coal and petroleum—happen principally to be situated. Latin America (the .newspaper suggests) is on the margin of this area, and lies mainly and essentially in the southern hemisphere. The real interests of the republics therefore are not involved in the U.S.-Soviet quarrel. Furthermore, the great zones of northern civilisation and conflict are temperate territories, whereas Latin America is mostly tropical and sub-tropical. For this reason, and also because a mechanised social order on the North American model would be uncongenial to the Hispanic temperament, the infiltration of North American ideas should be resisted.
Dr. Getulio Vargas, who despatched 25,000 Brazilians to fight with the Allies in Italy during the Second World War, has sent no troops to Korea. A short while ago the military dis- cussions between the U.S.A. and Mexico were suspended indefinitely by President Aleman because of the suspicion which they had aroused, and this postponement of the negotiations was almost unanimously applauded by the Mexican public. It is evident, indeed, that all the Latin American countries are following Argentina's example in one respect at least; they are becoming increasingly isolationist in regard to the U.S.A. A North American commentator recently remarked: " The United States is now in the position Great Britain occupied once; it has to persuade countries distant from the scene of actual fighting that the war against Communism is really their war."
The third major cause of ill-feeling is the fact that Latin America, needing U.S. capital, equipment and custom, fears U.S. investment. The moderately right-wing newspaper Marcha, published in democratic Uruguay and already quoted above, states: " We can accept neither Soviet totalitarianism nor Yankee imperialism. It is true that we direct our criticism most frequently to the latter. That is for no other reason than that this imperialism, which is financial in origin, threatens our economy, dominates our national behaviour, and suborns and corrupts our national leaders."
A Mexican magazine lately reminded its readers that when the Cuban national hero, Jose Marti, attended the first Pan- American Conference in 1889, he remarked that, before being received in Washington, he and the other delegates from Latin America were taken to visit the factories at Pittsburg and enter- tained by exporters and financiers of Wall Street. This, and the tone of the local newspaper reports of the event, made it quite clear (in Marti's opinion) that Latin America was .looked upon merely as another " Far West," an urgent objective for another crowd of U.S. " pioneers." Today the Brazilians have refused to allow the North Americans to undertake the exploitation of the oil resources which undoubtedly exist in Brazil, and which they themselves are unable, for financial and technical reasons, to exploit unaided.
The deterioration in the relations between the two Americas has caused anxiety in Washington, and Mr. Acheson evidently feels that he must now devote more attention to hemispheric affairs. Not only is the southern continent the source of many essential raw materials, and a vast market for North American manufactures; it is of immense importance strategically (in relation to the Panama Canal and the approaches to West Africa and the Mediterranean) and a powerful factor in the United Nations, where the Latin American republics command no fewer than one third of all the seats in the Assembly.
In the economic sphere the importance of Chilean copper is indicated by the fact that strikes in the Chilean mines have led to a reduction in U.S. copper allocations to the motor industry and other consumers. The suspension of the shipping of Bolivian tin to the U.S.A. since last October is not so serious, but it cannot be allowed to persist indefinitely without grave consequences. The dispute between the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company and the Guatemalan Government in recent months has encouraged the growth of anti-U.S. feeling in that republic, and has caused Mr. McCormack to exclaim
in the House of Representatives: " We now have a Soviet beach-head on our flank." A fortnight ago Mr. Nelson Rocke- feller complained that the U.S.A. has been " ignoring, neglect- ing and underestimating its fundamental ties with the governments and peoples of other American republics," and added : " Inter-American unity has lost much of its vitality, momentum and direction."
To remedy this situation The New York Times has recom- mended that it may now be necessary to give full Cabinet rank to a Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. That is a practical proposal. The basic reason for the North Americans' failure to secure the full co-operation of the southern con- tinent, however, is their conviction that the Latin Americans ought to be inspired by the democratic ideals which prevail north of the Rio Grande. This cannot be. The geography, climate, races and religions are different, and history has divided the hemisphere.
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