94

of the Military School and the annexed Military Academy. Although the United States had a history of naval cooperation with Peru dating from 1920, not until 15 April 1941 did it negotiate its first Army mission agreement with that power. On that date it agreed to supply one U. S. Army officer to serve as an advisor to the Peruvian Army Remount Service, 95 On 15 July 1941 the United States agreed to provide Costa Rica with an Army mission for a four-year term for the purpose of cooperating with the "Minister of State, Police and Public Safety" and with the Army for the purpose of "enhancing the efficiency of the Costa Rican Army. "96 Three months before Pearl Harbor, on 4 September 1941, the United States signed its last prewar mission agreement with a Latin American nation when it agreed to send an Air Corps mission to Bolivia for a four-year period. 97

The conclusion of these agreements in the 1939-1941 period brought the total number of U.S. missions to 17 in 13 countries at the moment that the United States was drawn into World War II. Three new nations initiated mission agreements during World War II. The first of these, Panama

signed a bilateral agreement on 7 July 1942 under which the United States agreed to detail an Army colonel for duty

for one year with the Republic of Panama for the purpose

of advising the "Minister of Foreign Affairs on subjects pertaining to the defense of the Republic of Panama.

"198

In the following year, on 25 January 1943, the United States agreed to send a naval mission to the Dominican Republic for a four-year period. 99 Nine months later, on 27 October

1943, the United States agreed to send a military aviation mission to Paraguay, 100 and on 10 December 1943 it also

agreed to send a military mission to Paraguay.

101

Thus during the crucial years of World War II the United States had largely achieved its purpose of replacing European military missions with its own Armed Services representatives. During that conflict the United States had mission agreements with all but four of the Latin American nations--Uruguay, Cuba, Honduras, and Mexico. Of these only Mexico has never seen fit to join the program. During and since the war new agreements have been negotiated as old ones expired, additional service missions have been added, and, in three cases at least the mission program has been halted by the Latin American power to which the missions have been assigned. In the first of these, Argentina, under Perón, in October 1951 saw fit not to continue the program after withdrawing from the Mutual

Security Pact, 102 and did not reenter the program until

after Peron's ouster in 1955. In the second, Cuba halted its participation in the program in February and March 1959, 103

soon after Castro came to power and, of course, has not rejoined the program. In the third, Haiti, under Duvalier, ordered all mission personnel to leave in the spring and summer of 1963.104

At the present time the United States has bilateral mission agreements in force with 17 of its Latin American neighbors. A review of these agreements reveals that they include an Air Force agreement of 3 October 1956 and an Army agreement of 2 August 1960 with Argentina; Air Force and Army agreements of 30 June 1956 with Bolivia; a Navy agreement of 7 May 1942 with Brazil; Air Force and Navy agreements of 15 February 1951 and an Army agreement of 15 November 1956 with Chile; a Navy agreement of 14 October 1946 and Air Force and Army agreements of 21 February 1949 with Colombia; an Army agreement of 10 December 1945 with Costa Rica; a Military Assistance agreement of 8 March 1962 with the Dominican Republic; Air Force and Navy agreements of 12 December 1940 and an Army agreement of 29 June 1944 with Ecuador; an Army agreement of 17 November 1954 and

an Air Force agreement of 21 November 1957 with El Salvador;

agreement of 21 May 1945 with Guatemala; Air Force and Army agreements of 6 March 1950 with Honduras; an Air Force agreement of 19 November 1952 and an Army agreement of 19 November 1953 with Nicaragua; an Army agreement of 7 July 1942, with Panama; an Air Force agreement of 27 October 1943 and an Army agreement of 10 December 1943 with Paraguay; a Navy agreement of 31 July 1940, an Air Force agreement of 7 October 1946 and an Army agreement of 6 September 1956 with Peru; an Air Force agreement of 4 December 1951 with Uruguay; a Navy agreement of 23 August 1950, an Army agreement of 10 August 1951, and an Air Force agreement of 105 16 January 1953 with Venezuela.

The administration of the mission program for Latin America has been vested since 1944 in the U. S. military headquarters centered in the Canal Zone106--in the early years in Headquarters, Caribbean Defense Command, and, since the adoption of its new name in 1963, in Headquarters, Southern Command, 107 Until 1961, for purposes of protocol and administration in the field, the ranking U.S. officer, regardless of branch of service, exercised senior responsibility in those countries where the United States was represented by two or more missions. In the latter year,

however, General O'Meara, Commander, Caribbean Defense Command, on orders from Washington, instituted a new procedure under which he designated certain Latin American areas as major areas of responsibility of one of the three U. S. services. With the institution of this practice, the senior officer of the service having area responsibility was vested with senior responsibility regardless of his rank in relation to the senior officers of the other services.

In their operations the different missions, by the

terms of their agreements, are responsible to the host government to which assigned, and in this capacity constitute an integral part of the advisory and training echelons of the host country. In fulfilling their role, they advise on every aspect of the respective military programs and are most influential in advising on the acquisition of new matériel and on the varied aspects of training. When

members of a mission lack the time or the qualifications to instruct host country personnel in the operation, repair, or maintenance of equipment, they take the lead in securing mobile training teams from commands in the United States.

Among their other duties mission personnel handle all of the work associated with the functions of the Military Assistance Program. In 1951 when MAP was established the