The Inter-American Conference on Freedom:

...This, too, was then abandoned and a proposal substituted to amend a resolution of the Political Commission, by adding to its general denunciation of dictatorships the words "whether Fascist, Communist or Falangist...

...But that lesson was the only tangible result of the Second Inter-American Conference for Democracy and Freedom...

...The American delegation, myself included, was far too apologetic, weak and ineffectual...

...The Conference was prevented from questioning the present situation in Cuba and from exposing the Communist roles in bringing Latin American dictators (including Fulgencio Batista) into power, supporting such dictatorships against democratic efforts to oust them, and in undermining existing democratic governments, including that of Venezuela...

...The direction of the Conference first became clear when a rule was adopted confining discussion of "internal affairs" to "the four dictatorships...

...The claim of Cheddi Jagan, pro-Communist leader of British Guiana, that the Conference was a great victory for pro-Communist forces, is probably an exaggeration...

...delegates were told that this had been a clever move on our part to head off adoption of a resolution to endorse Fidel Castro...

...Some delegates had already left...

...There were no representatives of any branch of the Government, except Congressman Charles O. Porter, who was not effective...

...When the liberal delegates from Puerto Rico discovered that a delegation representing the Puerto Rican independence movement was present, they decided first to raise the question of why that tiny bankrupt pro-Communist group had been invited, but then withdrew it...

...Several delegates suggested that if I changed my resolution to a condemnation of totalitarianism in general it might even be adopted unanimously...

...I could not conscientiously continue as a member of a Conference unwilling to record its opposition to all forms of dictatorship...

...delegate said he recognized among the 220-odd delegates the names of 56 Communists or Communist sympathizers...

...Politeness may have saved our delegation from the kind of physical attack publicly suffered by a delegate from Trinidad, who had been "insulting" to Communists, and by a U.S...

...Pro-Communists out-sat, out-talked and out-stayed all others...

...All the usual Communist tactics were used...

...Suppose that delegates representing Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo had been invited and no mention of the conditions in their country had been permitted...

...They were dissuaded from both these steps by arguments for "harmony," that fatal united front tactic...

...delegation sat politely silent through hours of tirades against the United States as the source of all the ills of Latin America...

...these were almost the only U.S...

...delegation was at a further disadvantage because of the politeness so typical of our intellectuals...

...the "delicate balance" of the Venezuelan coalition might be affected...

...Roger Baldwin made the motion...

...On the basis of such a Conference fraternization, the common people of Latin America may well ask, "Are these people really Communists if anti-Communists are willing to work with them for democracy...

...In view of the Conference's mood, the liberal Puerto Ricans, though abstaining from voting on that resolution, were "not too dissatisfied" at being able at least to ward off a condemnation of the United States for holding Puerto Rico in colonial slavery...

...delegates were totally unaware of what was going on...

...1 found confirmation for this in the disgraceful performance of local Communists at the public meeting which opened the Conference, where they sought to obstruct its proceedings by organized demonstrations ("Cuba si, Yanqui no"), in the Communist street demonstrations then occurring, obviously intended to undermine Betancourt, and in Betancourt's own forthright denunciations of the Venezuelan Communist party...

...I believe no other member resigned...

...Some U.S...

...When 1 declined to do so, it was proposed that instead of my resolution, there should be a resolution reaffirming the stand of the 1950 conference in Havana which denounced Nazi, Fascist, Falangist and Communist totalitarianism...

...The U.S...

...It was rejected by a vote announced as 51 to 41...

...Although I believe I was right, I do not find in the nature of those reasons any ground for condemning those liberals who believed it wiser to take the other course...

...I would be out of order: I would achieve nothing except "disharmony," since the resolution would be defeated...

...there were no representatives of organized labor, reportedly because those invited had been told they must not mention Communism...

...The character of the Conference was startlingly revealed when it adopted a resolution condemning the Francisco Franco and Antonio Sala-zar dictatorships, but none condemning any Communist country...

...A number were more or less professional Latin Americans, teachers and publicists who felt a need to maintain their "contacts" with Latin Americans...

...members who spoke Spanish...

...At this point I resigned...

...By then the time fixed for submitting resolutions had passed...

...Pro-Communists constituted less than a majority of the Conference...

...Haiti, Nicaragua...

...The Conference not only failed to adopt basic programs for democracy and freedom, but instead was a positive detriment to those ends by adding to the widespread confusion among Latin American peoples about who are friends and who enemies of democracy and freedom...

...But the Conference was permitted to denounce only such aspects of Latin American developments as it suits present Communist purposes to condemn: colonialism, economic imperialism and dictatorship in Nicaragua, Haiti...

...The U.S...

...The President of the Conference was a man well known in Venezuela as publisher of a Caracas newspaper considered the leading mouthpiece of the Communist line...

...As soon as word got around, I was visited by delegates, U.S...

...This proposed adding the words "and/or by International Communism...

...It was rejected by a fairly large majority, though those voting against it were said to have included a number of persons who were not delegates to the Conference...

...delegation was sympathetic to much of the criticism of U.S...

...We were urged not to raise the Communist or Cuban issues because it would be discourteous to our hosts and "disrupt" the Conference...

...But a well-trained Communist minority is usually able to impose its will upon a less organized majority...

...The U.S...

...and others, urging me not to introduce it...

...When the character of the Conference became apparent, 1 determined to introduce a resolution condemning Communism...

...Paraguay and the Dominican Republic...

...After considerable reflection I decided that, even if my resolution faced inevitable defeat, it would enable those who genuinely supported democracy and freedom to demonstrate their consistency and would expose to the politically unfledged the true character of the Conference and the hopelessness of united front tactics...

...In a wistful effort toward self-respect, on the last day of the Conference, a petition taking a stand against Communist dictatorship was circulated outside the meetings and signed by a number of delegates...

...Sitting down with Trujillo under such circumstances would raise the most serious doubts about the sincerity of liberal declarations...

...Later, U.S...

...Meetings were "packed" by complete outsiders who participated in debate and even in voting...

...delegation was at a disadvantage throughout...

...delegates felt it would be suicidal to break ties with those anti-Communist forces in Latin America represented at the Conference...

...Joining with Communists, who represent an enormously greater threat to democracy and freedom, must inevitably have the same effect...

...Many-had been vigorous critics of that policy for years, but criticism in the interest of democracy and freedom is a wholly different matter from Communist attacks to advance the interests of the Soviet Union...

...In a last effort to include some mention of Communism, however slight, somewhere in the large volume of resolutions adopted, it was agreed to introduce an amendment to a resolution calling upon the democracies to refuse to accord legitimacy to labor unions "controlled by dictators...

...Two vigorous anti-Communists were very young men who looked to older delegates for leadership they did not find...

...The Conference's single important constructive contribution, an imaginative program for economic development based on proposals prepared by Jose Figueres and Adolf Berle, will almost certainly fail to receive the attention it deserves because of the circumstances under which it was adopted...

...I should add that several U.S...

...delegate who tried to stop the fight...

...for all practical purposes, nonexistent, many U.S...

...Since almost all proceedings were in Spanish, and translation was...

...Latin American policy...

...Paraguav and the Dominican Republic...

...I remembered that two months before the Czechoslovak coup...

...In the end, a resolution classifying Puerto Rico as a "colonial" problem and demanding "self-determination" for the Puerto Ricans was adopted...

...As to the Betancourt coalition...

...I myself was told I had "behaved badly" and been discourteous to President Romulo Betancourt by raising the Communist issue, although Betancourt was almost at that moment appearing on television and radio to denounce Communist-inspired demonstrations which had occurred in Venezuela that day...

...I agreed...

...The U.S...

...This rule obviously favored Cuba, by implying that Cuba was not a dictatorship...

...The President designated many of the other officials...

...A knowledgeable U.S...

...Eduard Benes said, "To maintain democracy, it is absolutely necessary to guard the delicate balance of the coalition...

...delegates, some of whom thought it unwise to introduce the resolution, said they would vote for it, and a few encouraged me to introduce it...

...Some were impressed with the reasons urged against my action...

...1 was neither convinced that those who professed such solicitude for it were sufficiently acquainted with Venezuelan politics to estimate the effects of my resolution, nor that democracy and freedom in Venezuela would be strengthened because the Conference dodged the problem of the Communist threat to their achievement...

...The Conference's treatment of Puerto Rico is an excellent case in point...

...Although there were no Communist sympathizers in it, and some of its members are active anti-Communist liberals, it was not a strong delegation...

...Accommodation to the anti-North Americanism of a majority of the delegates and to the pro-Communism of a substantial number characterized the Conference...

...At the plenary sessions the pro-Communists sat in strategically distributed groups, each group with a leader who gave instructions...