Welles's Finger

Despite the fact that he could hand-pick his subordinates, Spruille Braden faced a dilemma. Last week an old hand at Latin American affairs put his finger on it. Wrote onetime Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles in his New York Herald Tribune column: "For over two years I have warned that the policy of the Department of State would arouse popular support for the military leaders and weaken [Argentina's] liberal and democratic forces. [This policy] helped to bring about [Peron's] triumph."

To those who insisted that the State Department "has been battling for a lofty principle," Welles replied: "In so far as principles are involved, the policy of the State Department has deliberately violated principles to which this Government is solemnly pledged, [including] the spirit of the basic inter-American agreements. . . . It has circularized the other American republics announcing that it will participate in no inter-American agreements in which the new Argentine Government takes part." Unless the U.S. takes Argentina back into its good graces, "no inter-American conference can now be held without risking . . . the total destruction of Pan-American solidarity."

Mr. Welles was seconded by Brazil. Good Neighbor Brazil doubted that "Nazi-Fascist doctrines, beaten at the seat of their irradiation, can encounter in the Western Hemisphere a propitious climate for new and dangerous adventures. . . ." Brazil, leading a majority of Latin American nations, was ready to let Argentina's bygones be bygones.

This week the State Department tried to get out of its dilemma. Secretary of State James Byrnes, saying he spoke for a majority of the American republics, offered to include Argentina in the pact as soon as Peron wiped out the "Axis influences" in his country. We wanted "deeds and not merely promises," huffed Jimmy Byrnes.