Brazil: Insult to Injury

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Adolf Berle. Kennedy's Latin America troubleshooter, got a small hello from Brazil's new President Jânío Quadros. But, according to the story as leaked out last week by diplomatic sources, it was even ruder than that.

Berle was unable to get Brazil's backing for a united Latin American front against Castro's Cuba. As the futile talk ended, Berle stuck out his hand to say goodbye. Quadros refused to shake it. Then, to the undisguised dismay of Brazilian Foreign Minister Afonso Arinos, Quadros pointedly turned his back on the special envoy of the President of the U.S.

As accounts of the incident spread across Brazil, a chorus of protest arose. Editorialized Rio's Correio da Manhâ: "The way Jânío Quadros received, or rather dismissed, President Kennedy's special envoy deserves sharp criticism from all Brazilians." The criticism spread to include the whole subject of Quadros' headlong rush to "neutralism" during his six weeks in office. Wrote the influential Jornal do Brasil, heretofore one of Quadros' staunchest supporters: "Quadros, who in his campaign stressed the impossibility of ignoring the importance and existence of Red China, now appears to ignore the importance and existence of the U.S. What is the idea?"

The idea seemed to be that Jânío was hell-bent to achieve a totally independent position halfway between the U.S. and the Communist bloc, and would brook no argument. Late in the week, he announced that Brazil might well vote both for Red China's admission to the United Nations and the Khrushchev plan to "reorganize" the U.N. into complete impotence. As for the rumbling all this aroused among some politicians and military men, Quadros vowed, "There are only two ways to block my course: to depose me or assassinate me."