High-Wire Diplomacy

Swinging round to Rio for next week's conference of U.S. ambassadors in South America, Assistant Secretary of State Edward G. Miller Jr. dropped in for a visit with Juan Peron. It was no mere card-dropping call. Four years after Peron's election, getting along with the Argentine President was still the U.S.'s touchiest hemispheric problem, and Miller had come armed with a bulging briefcase. With Peron facing serious economic troubles at home and abroad, Miller thought that Argentina's President might welcome the chance to talk business.

On his first two days in Buenos Aires, Miller spent 12 1/2 hours chewing the diplomatic fat with Peron. In fluent Spanish he told the President plainly that as long as his regime continued to whittle away civil liberties and chop down the independent press, close relations between the U.S. and Argentina would be difficult. Peron switched the subject to Communism and repeated his old phrase that Argentina would come to the aid of the U.S. in any war with Russia. "But Mr. President," replied Miller, "our problem right now is to prevent war."

Change the Rules. Then Miller trotted out some pet projects. One was to eliminate or reduce a double tax system under which a company's profits are taxed both by Argentina and by the U.S.; another was a new treaty of commerce and friendship that would reassure U.S. businessmen operating in Argentina against the fear of expropriation. Peron, never much at home in economics, called in his experts. They went over ways of increasing Argentine exports to the U.S., and agreed to shift the headquarters of the mixed U.S.Argentine trade commission from Washington to Buenos Aires. Although the Argentine press denied that a U.S. loan had been discussed, Washington insiders took for granted that there had been some talk of funding Argentina's outstanding dollar debts (at present $160 to $170 million).

Besides holding such sessions with Peron and his advisers, Miller faced the usual delicate task of making friends without rousing vociferous groups in the U.S. by appearing to approve all the works of the Peron regime. It was a task at which U.S. diplomats, from Cordell Hull to onetime Ambassador James Bruce, had not been conspicuously successful. Personable, lively, tactful and resourceful, Miller had obviously pondered many an hour on just how to walk this diplomatic tightrope.

Change the Subject. After a personally conducted tour of Senora Peron's charitable enterprises, Diplomat Miller said: "No citizen of the Americas can fail to hope for the success of any program to improve the lot of the common people of the country." Reporters from the official press were not quite satisfied. An El Mundo man asked his exact opinion of Senora Peron's work. "I have been deeply impressed," said Miller. "Your visit here," continued the reporter, "reminds us of Ambassador Bruce's words that General Peron was a great leader of a great nation. What do you think of these words? Are they an exaggeration?" "No," said Miller, "Bruce and I are good friends."

At this point Senora Peron chimed in: "And what about social justice? But excuse me, I know it isn't my job to ask questions." "Senora Peron's question is most appropriate," fawned the reporter. "Senora Peron is also a journalist. It is just the question we reporters should have asked." "I am thankful to Mr. Miller for his words praising our foundation's work," said Evita. Recovering blandly, Miller replied: "I am charmed to have come here and seen this with my own eyes." Change the Press. Before he left Buenos Aires, Miller gave Evita a nylon petticoat (his wife had picked it out in Washington). For Peron there was a pistol-shaped cigarette lighter. Whatever early coolness had existed at Government House soon vanished. The newspaper Epoca's series on "the new Wall Street imperialism" ended abruptly; Democracies front-paged an editorial saying: "Mr. Miller has the extraordinary gift of being authentically North American at the same time that he seems also very Argentine."

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