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Becoming a Good Neighbor among Dictators pp 15–46Cite as

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The Envoys: The Foreign Service in Central America, 1930–1952

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Abstract

This chapter presents an investigation of United States Foreign Service officers (chiefs of mission) who served in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras between 1930 and 1952. It argues that several variables converged to shape the Foreign Service in Central America. Such factors include the developing culture and professionalization of the Foreign Service; patterns of appointment as determined by politicians and bureaucrats in Washington; and broad changes in foreign policy and the geopolitical position of the United States. Some of these factors were unique to Central America. Foreign Service officers who served in Central America during the early 1930s, for example, shared an aristocratic distaste for local society. Other factors, such as the growth and specialization of the U.S. Foreign Service, affected its diplomats everywhere, though they would significantly affect U.S. relations with the isthmian republics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Henry Stimson (U.S. Secretary of State) to Sheldon Whitehouse (U.S. Minister to Guatemala), November 23, 1932, National Archives of the United States at College Park, MD, Record Group 84: Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, Legation in San Salvador [PRES], volume 116, class 710.

  2. 2.

    On the development of non-intervention under the Roosevelt administration, see Chap. 4.

  3. 3.

    On the 1923 Treaties: Leonard, Search for Stability, 80–83. Leonard characterizes the Treaties as the “high water-mark of constitutionalism”. According to Leonard, the Department’s conviction that the earlier and similar 1907 Treaties had provided stability was naïve. Such calm as existed was rather caused by a convergence of interests between the Department, U.S. businesses in the region, and local elites. See also: Findling, Close Neighbors, Chap. 4.

  4. 4.

    Gellman, Good Neighbor Diplomacy, 3–4; “The Presidency: The Hoover Week”, Time Magazine [TM] (December 16, 1929).

  5. 5.

    Matthew Hanna (U.S. Minister to Nicaragua) to Whitehouse, June 1, 1932, National Archives of the United States at College Park, MD, Record Group 84: Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, Legation in Guatemala [PRGU], volume 286, class 800.

  6. 6.

    Julius G. Lay (U.S. Minister to Honduras) to Whitehouse, January 13, 1933, PRGU, volume 295, class 800.

  7. 7.

    “The Presidency: Practical idea”, TM (November 18, 1929).

  8. 8.

    “Sheldon Whitehouse dies at 82; Career Diplomat for 26 years”, The New York Times [NYT] (August 7, 1965), 21; “Dudley P. Gilberts are Newport Hosts”, NYT (August 25, 1931), 18; “Notes of Social Activities in New York and Elsewhere”, NYT (July 25, 1932), 12; “Republican Chiefs Feted in Newport”, NYT (September 11, 1932), 29; “Newport Greets President’s Wife”, NYT (September 2, 1933), 15.

  9. 9.

    “Robbins dead; N.Y. rites set for U.S. envoy”, The Washington Post [TWP] (April 8, 1935), 1.

  10. 10.

    For example: Personal Memorandum for the Minister, November 19, 1928, PRES, volume 106, class 844. A list of informers deemed reliable by the legation. Mainly businessmen, landowners, and foreigners.

  11. 11.

    “Interview with Robert Corrigan January 21, 1988”, Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training [ADST], CD-ROM. Also see: Gellman, Good Neighbor Diplomacy, 16.

  12. 12.

    Lawrence Higgins (U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Honduras) to Whitehouse, June 4, 1932, National Archives of the United States at College Park, MD, Record Group 84: Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, Legation in Tegucigalpa [PRHO], volume 188, class 800; Lay to Department, November 2, 1930, PRHO, volume 170, class 800; Lay to Department, February 4, 1932, PRHO, volume 187, class 800; Lay to Department, August 17, 1932, PRHO, volume 188, class 800; Lay to Thomas C. Wasson (U.S. Vice Consul to Puerto Cortes, Honduras), March 11, 1932, PRHO, volume 188, class 800.

  13. 13.

    For good discussions of the worldview of Central American elites, consult: Samuel Z. Stone, The Heritage of the Conquistadors. Ruling Classes in Central America from the Conquest to the Sandinistas (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1990); David McCreery, Rural Guatemala, 1760–1940 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994); Rodolfo Cerdas Cruz, “Colonial Heritage, External Domination, and Political Systems in Central America”, in Louis W. Goodman, William M. LeoGrande, and Johanna M. Forman eds., Political Parties and Democracy in Central America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press 1992); Jeffrey M. Paige, Coffee and Power. Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 120–126; Jeffrey L. Gould and Aldo Lauria-Santiago, To Rise in Darkness: Revolution, Repression, and Memory in El Salvador, 1920–1932 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), 8–16.

  14. 14.

    Cornelius H. van Engert, El Salvador, National Archives of the United States, College Park, MD, Record Group 59: Department of State Lot Files [Lot Files], Studies on Latin America, box 12, folder marked Salvador by Cornelius van H. Engert.

  15. 15.

    William McCafferty (U.S. Chargé d’Affaires a.i. to Guatemala) to Department, November 13, 1930, National Archives Microfilm Publication, M1280, roll 1, #1020; W.W. Scott (U.S. Chargé d’Affaires a.i. to El Salvador) to Department, March 22, 1930, PRES, volume 104, class 800; Harold D. Finley (U.S. Chargé d’Affaires a.i. to El Salvador) to Department, May 2, 1931, PRES, volume 111, class 800; Warren D. Robbins (U.S. Minister to El Salvador) to Department, March 21, 1931, PRES, volume 112, class 800.B.

  16. 16.

    Higgins to Department, June 10, 1932, PRHO, volume 188, class 800; Higgins to Department, June 28, 1932, PRHO, volume 192, class 891.

  17. 17.

    McCafferty to Department, November 13, 1930, M1280, roll 1, #1020.

  18. 18.

    Lay to the U.S. Consulates on the Honduran North Coast, November 13, 1930, PRHO, volume 172, class 850.4; Lay to Department, September 10, 1931, PRHO, volume 179, class 800; Stewart to Lay, October 20, 1930, PRHO, volume 170, class 800; Higgins to Department, December 19, 1930, PRHO, volume 170, class 800; Stewart to Lay, April 8, 1931, PRHO, volume 178, class 800; Lay to Department, April 19, 1931, PRHO, volume 178, class 800.

  19. 19.

    Scott to Department, March 22, 1930, PRES, volume 104, class 800; Scott to Department, August 1, 1930, PRES, volume 104, class 800.

  20. 20.

    Local elites seem to have had a very similar understanding of what communism was: Héctor Lindo-Fuentes et al., Remembering a Massacre in El Salvador: The Insurrection of 1932, Roque Dalton, and the Politics of Historical Memory (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2007), 46, argues that Salvadoran elites in the 1930s did not have a well-developed idea of what communism was and used the term “communist” according “to the parlance of the day, when the word meant someone who was violent, immoral, against the law, contrary to the nation state, or lacking in Christianity”.

  21. 21.

    Higgins, Notes on the Political Campaign in Honduras in 1923, n.d., PRHO, volume 188, class 800: Honduras, January to June; Henry S. Haines (U.S. Vice Consul to Puerto Castilla, Honduras) to Lay, August 19, 1931, PRHO, volume 179, class 800: Honduras (Continued).

  22. 22.

    On the Good Neighbor and the outbreak of World War II, see Chap. 6, section “With Friends Like These …”.

  23. 23.

    The classic account of the Good Neighbor policy is: Wood, The Making. Many other works cited throughout the current text will provide insights into the specifics of the Good Neighbor policy.

  24. 24.

    William C. Bullitt to R. Walton Moore, December 8, 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt Office Files, Part III: Departmental Correspondence [ROF], Reel 24, Frames 727–730; Franklin Roosevelt to the Acting Secretary of State, December 28, 1936, ROF, Reel 24, Frame 731; Franklin Roosevelt to the Acting Secretary of State, December 19, 1936, ROF, Reel 24, Frame 735; Memorandum for Judge Moore, December 19, 1936, ROF, Reel 24, Frames 736–737; Unmarked files (ca. 1933), Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Papers [RPP], Official File [OF] 20: State Department, February to June, 1933; Unmarked files (Long to Hull, February, 1933), Elisha V. and Boaz W. Long papers. New Mexico State Records Center and Archives at Santa Fe, New Mexico, box 44, folder 109: Analysis of incumbents in Diplomatic Service, 1933; Interview with James Cowles Hart Bonright, February 26, 1986, ADST; Whitehouse to Franklin Roosevelt, November 19, 1934, RPP, OF729: Sheldon Whitehouse, 1933–1938. On Curtis’s final weeks in the service, see Chap. 3, section “Coup”.

  25. 25.

    U.S. Department of State, State Department Register (Washington, DC, 1941), 107; Register (1942), 147, 179–180, and 192; Register (1946), 218; Register (1948), 291; Register (1950), 110.

  26. 26.

    Trueblood, Memorandum on Qualifications of Officers specializing in Latin American Service, December 15, 1937, Lot Files, General Memoranda, box 2, folder marked General, Oct–Dec, 1937. Incidentally, Secretary Drew commented on Keena that: “He is a very nice person—quiet, unruffable, sense of humor. Being of Irish extraction he would be”. And on Corrigan he noted: “Am I prejudiced or back-patting or is there something about the Irish? They always seem to be smarter than other people and to have ‘a way with them’. You either hate them or love them”. Correspondence and early diary entries of Gerald A. Drew, 1919–1970, ADST.

  27. 27.

    Correspondence and early diary entries of Gerald A. Drew, 1919–1970, ADST; Corrigan to Moore, October 30, 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York, Corrigan Papers, box 7, folder: Moore, R. Walton.

  28. 28.

    On Erwin’s initial assessment of the Carías government, see Chap. 5, section “Appropriating Fascism”.

  29. 29.

    Fay Allen Des Portes (U.S. Minister to Guatemala) to Department, May 15, 1940, PRGU, Confidential Files [CF], box 3, class 711.

  30. 30.

    Kyle to Arnold Nicholson, Memorandum on Dean Kyle’s background, educational training, travels and practical experience to equip him for the ambassadorship in Guatemala, n.d. (ca. 1943), Cornell University, Carl A. Kroch Library Rare & Manuscript Collections, Archives 1686: Edwin Jackson Kyle papers, 1934–1955.

  31. 31.

    Long to Judge Vincent, October 4, 1916, Long Papers, box 48, folder 136: Letters Sent; Long, undated pamphlet (ca. 1917), Long Papers, box 53, folder 224: Special Report: Conditions in Germany after the Stillhalte Agreement, 1931; Long to Dempsey, April 13, 1936, Long Papers, box 48, folder 140: Letters sent and letters received; Long to Chavez, August 22, 1936, Long Papers, box 48, folder 140: Letters sent and letters received.

  32. 32.

    Correspondence and early diary entries of Gerald A. Drew, 1919–1970, ADST.

  33. 33.

    Corrigan to Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 24, 1934, Corrigan Papers, box 9, folder: Roosevelt, F.D. & Eleanor.

  34. 34.

    Corrigan does note that the Salvadoran journalists who interviewed him eventually published an “impression” of his words, not a direct quotation. Francis P. Corrigan (U.S. Minister to El Salvador) to Department, February 1, 1937, PRES, box 7, volume II, class 123.

  35. 35.

    For example: Des Portes to Department, June 9, 1939, PRGU, box 23, class 800.

  36. 36.

    Correspondence and early diary entries of Gerald A. Drew, 1919–1970, ADST, gives a good impression of the U.S. Legation in El Salvador under Corrigan.

  37. 37.

    Corrigan to Department, February 1, 1937, PRES, box 7, volume II, class 123.

  38. 38.

    Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 296.

  39. 39.

    Corrigan to Willard Beaulac, April 15, 1936, Corrigan Papers, General Correspondence, box 1, folder: Beaulac, Willard.

  40. 40.

    The source of Erwin’s information is unknown, but he used it often. For example: John D. Erwin (U.S. Ambassador to Honduras) to Department, August 21, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 19, volume 7, class 800; Lt. Col. Nathan A. Brown, Jr. (U.S. Acting Military Attaché to Honduras) to the Military Intelligence Division, April 14, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 22, volume 13, class 850.4; Erwin to Department, December 22, 1944, PRHO, CF, box 22, volume 13, class 850.4.

  41. 41.

    Des Portes to Department, August 22, 1941, PRGU, box 41, class 820.02.

  42. 42.

    Nathaniel P. Davis (U.S. Foreign Service inspector) to Department, January 7, 1936, Lot Files: Inspection Reports, box 66, volume 1935.

  43. 43.

    Davis to Department, December 13, 1935, Lot Files: Inspection Reports, box 160, volume 1935.

  44. 44.

    Charles B. Hosmer (Foreign Service inspector) to Erwin, March 24, 1942, PRHO, CF, box 3, volume 1, class 124.6.

  45. 45.

    H. Merle Cochran (U.S. Foreign Service inspector) to Walter Thurston (U.S. Minister to El Salvador), January 25, 1943, PRES, box 77, volume IV, class 124.6.

  46. 46.

    E.R. Stettinius, Jr. to the U.S. Embassies in Latin America, February 2, 1944, PRGU, box 106, class 800.

  47. 47.

    Parts of Chap. 7 deal with Central American oppositionists and their views of U.S. relationships with the dictators.

  48. 48.

    On Thurston’s background and work in El Salvador, see Chap. 7, section “The Embassies and the Opposition”.

  49. 49.

    Memorandum enclosed in Gerhard Gade (U.S. Chargé d’Affaires a.i. to El Salvador) to Department, December 8, 1944, PRES, box 99, volume XV, class 800.

  50. 50.

    Unless indicated otherwise, all the information on the professional lives of these men is from: Register (1950), 71, 377–378, 458, 463, and 504.

  51. 51.

    Some of these specialists did not belong to the Foreign Service but to other Departments. The Department of Commerce had its commercial attachés. The Department of Justice its legal attachés (in Latin America, the legal attaché was often a F.B.I. agent who did intelligence work). The Departments of Army, Navy, and Air (later the Department of War and still later Defense) had their military and navy attachés. In Central America, one military attaché was usually accredited to all the Central American republics together and would be stationed permanently in Guatemala. During the war, however, every legation or embassy had its own military and/or navy attaché.

  52. 52.

    Cabot to Department, Organizational Report Guatemala, July 9, 1940, State Department Central File, box 669; Drew to Department, Organizational Report Guatemala, State Department Central File, box 669; Cousins to Department, Organizational Report Honduras, January 1, 1940, State Department Central File, box 669; Erwin to Department, Organizational Report Honduras, June 26, 1944, State Department Central File, box 669; Gade to Department, Organizational Report El Salvador, November 8, 1940, State Department Central File, box 670; Gade to Department, Organizational Report El Salvador, June 22, 1944, State Department Central File, box 670. These numbers also exclude employees without diplomatic functions such as guards, messengers, gardeners, cleaners, and so on.

  53. 53.

    On the expansion of the Foreign Service and how it affected U.S. policy before and during World War II, see Chaps. 6 and 7.

  54. 54.

    Using a statistical analysis, Phillip L. Kelly attempts to prove that Latin America received ambassadors of poor caliber in the postwar decades. It is, of course, undeniable that the most talented officers went to London, Paris, or Berlin (or Brazil and Venezuela, as Kelly’s analysis also shows) but it remains impossible to scientifically measure the effectiveness of the training of these officers, let alone measure the “success” of their tenures in Latin America. What would the measure of that success be? Phillip L. Kelly, “The Characteristics of United States Ambassadors to Latin America”, Inter-American Economic Affairs 30 (Autumn 1976), 49–80.

Works Cited

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  1. Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Jorrit van den Berk

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van den Berk, J. (2018). The Envoys: The Foreign Service in Central America, 1930–1952. In: Becoming a Good Neighbor among Dictators. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69986-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69986-8_2

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