Caution and Bolivia

The U.S. State Department was thoroughly scooped on the Bolivian revolt. No hint or word of the impending uprising had come from the U.S. Ambassador, socialite Pierre de Lagarde Boal (rhymes with goal), an elegant career diplomat whose dispatches have unfailingly reflected the views of Bolivian tin-mine owners. From able Norman Armour, Ambassador to Argentina, there had been hints of forthcoming trouble, but since Norman Armour's business is Argentina, they were no more than that. The State Department had no solid, fresh information on which to base judgments on Bolivian affairs.

The Department had burned its fingers by hastening to recognize the new government in Argentina, which turned out to be anti-Allied. Therefore Secretary of State Cordell Hull now moved with caution and suspicion on the question of recognizing the new Bolivian government. From the Department view, the deposed government of President Enrique Penaranda, stooge of the tin-mine owners, had been satisfactory; after all, Bolivian tin kept flowing north, and that was the main thing. But from Washington came indications that the new government intended to cooperate fully with the U.S. The new government's "confidential agent" in Washington was Dr. Enrique de Lozada, onetime lecturer at Williams and Harvard, ex-adviser to the Rockefeller committee on Inter-American Affairs. Dr. Lozada assured Washington of the new government's desire to cooperate.

But at week's end, as well he might, Cordell Hull still wanted more information.

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