Gordon, A. Lincoln
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Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Service Lyndon Baines Johnson Library The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training oreign Affairs Oral History Pro$ect AMBASSADOR A. LINCOLN GORDON Interviewed by: Paige Mulhollan Initial interview date: July 10, 1969 TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar) Harvard Professor Staff Member, Rockefeller oundation Relations ,ith Dean Rusk Relations ,ith President Lyndon Johnson Johnson as Senator Johnson as President Positions ,ith US -overnment Alliance for Progress Staff of .ar Production Board Delegate to UN Atomic Energy Commission Marshall Plan 112341152 .ashington, DC 112341121 Harriman Staff, Paris, rance 112141150 Harriman Staff, .hite House 115041152 Harriman Staff 115141152 Assistant Director, Office for Mutual Security London, England 115241155 Chief of AID Mission Minister for Economic Affairs Task orce4Economic Policy on Latin America 119041193 Members Report ;Alliance for Progress“ Otto Passman Act of Bogota appropriation Latin American contribution 1 Sources of ideas UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) Contributors Bay of Pigs President Kennedy>s speech, March 13, 1191 Inter4American Bank -overnors> Meeting United States Ambassador to Brazil 119141199 Revolution (1192) President -oulart Relations Alliance for Progress External debt ;Universal moratorium“ Jorge Serpa Relations ,ith President Kennedy Tom Mann Organization of American States (OAS) Dominican Republic .ar Inter4American orce Relations ,ith President Johnson Johnson>s vie,s on Latin America Vietnam Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America 119941193 Dominican crisis Ells,orth Bunker Juan D, Bosch Ambassadorial appointments Vietnam .ar Argentina coup Inter4American Economic and Social Council Presidential Meeting Hemisphere4,ide presidential meeting4Punta del Este Dissention President Johnson Agenda Participants Senate Resolution ulbrightARusk relations Senate oreign Relations Committee President Johnson Latin American Presidential visits to US US balance of payments International Bank loan to Haiti .alt Rosto, 2 Treasury business Agriculture business Meeting at JBJ ranch US Aid to Latin America Montevideo meeting Panama Death of Nicaragua President Schick Candidates for Ambassador to Brazil Non4-overnment Positions Harvard University: Chairman, International Economic Relations Business School program Underdeveloped Countries Development research (.orld,ide) 115C41190 ord oundation -rant -overnmentAPrivate Sector cooperation in development Brazil Colleagues President, Johns Hopkins University 11934 Dean Rusk President Johnson>s reaction INTERVIEW Q: Let's do get an introdu tory statement for the trans riber. You're Lin oln Gordon, and your two positions in the Johnson Administration were, first, as ambassador to (ra)il, a position whi h you ontinued in from the Kennedy years. Then in the beginning of 1966, you be ame assistant se retary of state for Inter,Ameri an Affairs and -nited .tates oordinator for the Allian e for Progress, a position in whi h you stayed until the middle of 1967. -ORDON: June. June 30, 1193. Q: Right. You did announ e about the beginning of 1967 that you were going to depart, but stayed on through . -ORDON: On January 1C, 1193 I had an exchange of letters ,ith the President, ,hich ,as published. Q: All of that is a matter of the re ord. -ORDON: That ,as the day of my formal election as president of Johns Hopkins. Q: Right. You held some relatively high positions in government, Mutual .e urity Agen y and others, at the end of 1910s and into the 1920s. Did you ever ome into onta t with Mr. Johnson at all during that period4 3 -ORDON: No. I didnEt kno, him at all ,hen he ,as a senator. I may perhaps have shaken his hand at some large reception, but I certainly didnEt have any personal acFuaintance ,ith him. Really, until he became president ,e virtually didnEt kno, each other. I think on one occasion, ,hen I ,as back on consultation in .ashington as ambassador in Brazil, I met him either at the .hite House or at the State Department, but not really to talk to. So ,e ,ere really not personally acFuainted at all before he became president. Q: That sort of answers the ne5t 6uestion I had. You are fre6uently mentioned as one of those who were involved in the original planning in the Allian e Program for President Kennedy, but I assume, from what you say, that President Johnson, then as vi e president, was not intimately involved in that. -ORDON: ThatEs right. My involvement in that ,as really a result of a series of accidents. My previous governmental service after the ,ar ,as not connected ,ith Latin America. I spent the ,ar on the staff of the .ar Production Board. Then for several months in 1129, I ,as on our delegation to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. This ,as ,hen Bernard Baruch ,as the chairman of the delegation, and ,e ,ere trying to negotiate the so4called Baruch Plan for international control of atomic energy. But in the summer of 1193 I ,as asked by a ,ar4time friend ,ho ,as then deputy assistant secretary of state for economic affairs, C. Tyler .ood, to help the State Department in the ,orking up of the Marshall Plan into a specific program. I got deeply involved in that on a part4time basis from the summer of 1123 until June of 1121G then full4time in Paris on -overnor HAverellI HarrimanEs staff from the summer of 1121 unti1 1150G then back ,ith Harriman in .ashington from 1150 to 1152, ,hen he ,as special assistant to President Truman. In 1151, he became the director of the Office of Mutual Security, and I became head of one of its divisions. I ,as assistant director for Mutual Security. Then I ,ent to London as chief of ,hat ,as left of the AID Mission and also minister for economic affairs in the embassy from 1152 to 1155. In the summer of 1155 I returned to Harvard ,ith a chair in the field of international economic relations, mainly at the Business School, but also, as it later developed, ,ith an appointment in the Center for International Affairs there. I ,as developing the international business and economic program for the business school but also got involved in teaching and research on economic development in underdeveloped countries generally. It happened that my personal assistant ,as a man ,ith considerable background in Latin America. He ,as an Englishman, originally born in Peru, ,ho had ,orked both in Peru and in Venezuela. He got me interested in Latin America. A lot of the case materials that ,e used in my course ,ere Latin American. And about 115C, along ,ith Professor Ed,ard Mason of the Harvard Economics Department, several of us ,orked up a joint pro$ect, ,hich got a sizable ord oundation grant, on problems of relations bet,een government and the private sector in development of underdeveloped countries. Q: .pe ifi ally with regard to Latin Ameri a4 -ORDON: No, this ,as ,orld4,ide. The idea ,as that ,e ,ould have a number of general studies but mainly individual country studies. I undertook to lead one on Brazil. At that time I had not been in Brazil or any,here else in Latin America. I kne, no Spanish or Portuguese. My first visit ,as in 1151, partly on this research pro$ect and partly as a member of a ord 4 oundation mission. They ,ere looking into ,hat they might do in Latin America. They previously had not had any programs there. I ,ent ,ith Alfred .olf, ,ho ,as their full4time staff member, ,ho is no, ,ith the Inter4American Bank, and ,ith Reynold Carlson, ,ho is just retiring as our ambassador to Colombia, ,ho ,as then a professor of economics at Vanderbilt and had had a lot of background and experience in Latin America. He had ,orked on the Brazilian Joint Economic Development Commission back in the early fifties. He had also ,orked for the .orld Bank on Brazil and Chile. He kne, both languages and kne, the South American continent very ,ell. I continued to give about half of my ,orking time to this pro$ect 44 through 1190. At the time of President KennedyEs election I ,as devoting most of my time to it. Shortly after his election 44 I guess about mid or late November 44 I got a telephone call from Adolph Berle in Ne, York 44 ,hom I kne, not intimately, but in a casual ,ay 44 saying that the President4elect had asked him to form a task force on policy to,ard Latin America. They ,anted an economist and they thought I ,ould be the best person. I tried to beg off on the ground that my acFuaintance ,ith Latin America ,as mainly ,ith Brazil, that I kne, nothing about Central America or the Caribbean, and that I could name for him about half a dozen American economists ,ith years of interest in Latin America. But he refused all that. The task force assignment ,as not a heavy one, in time. .e ,ere to meet on a fe, occasions in Ne, York for an afternoon and then arrange a t,o or three4day meeting to ,ind up, ,hich actually took place in Puerto Rico for Ne, YearEs Day, because ,e ,ere invited to the fourth inauguration of -overnor HLuisI MuKoz MarLn. The other members of the task force ,ere Professor HArthurI .hitaker from the University of Pennsylvania, ,ho ,as an expert on the political and legal development of the OAS, the Pan4 American Union, the Inter4American SystemG Professor Robert Alexander from Rutgers, ,ho ,as a specialist on Latin American labor mattersG Teddy HTeodoroI MoscosoG and Arturo Morales4Carrion. In addition, Dick -ood,in ,as a member and our direct link ,ith the President4elect. The report of that task force, of ,hich only a fe, copies ,ere made, is one document ,hich has not surfaced any,here.