THE AMERICAS: Ministers' Meeting

President Eisenhower got his first chance last week to mend some of the damage done to U.S.-Latin American relations by the attacks on Vice President Richard Nixon. In a letter to Brazil's President Juscelino Kubitschek, Ike suggested "that our two governments should consult together as soon as possible with a view to approaching other members of the Pan-American community, and starting promptly on measures that would produce throughout the continent a reaffirmation of devotion to Pan-Americanism and better planning in promoting the common interests of our several countries."

Ike's words, in answer to a Kubitschek letter (TIME, June 16) saying that "something must be done," were delivered in Rio by Roy Rubottom, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. After he delivered the note, Rubottom talked privately in Kubitschek's office for 95 minutes, continued over a filet mignon luncheon in the palace dining room. The two set a time—the week of Aug. 4—for a Brazilian visit by Secretary of State Dulles, and agreed to the idea of a conference of the Americas' foreign ministers, possibly in Bogota, where Colombian President-elect Alberto Lleras Camargo is to be inaugurated Aug. 7. Still in the discussion stage: a meeting of chiefs of state after the foreign ministers' conference.