VASCO TRISTAO LEITAO DA CUNHA

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 15959144
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2021
• Case Number: F-2021-01407
• Publication Date: July 1, 1964

Approved for Release: 2021/08/10 CO2207757
BRAZIL Vasco Tristao Leitao da CUNHA
Foreign Minister
Foreign Minister in the provisional Mazzilli
cabinet, Vasco Tristao Leitao da Cunha agreed on
15 April 1964 to continue in the same portfolio in
the cabinet of President Humberto Castelo Branco.
A brilliant scion of an old and distinguished
family who is believed to possess substantial
political courage, the new Foreign Minister is an
old-school, highly respected senior career diplo-
mat of Obvious pro-Western and democratic orien-
tation. In one of his initial public pronounce-
ments as Foreign Minister he reportedly stated
that Brazil would continue relations with all
countries of the world, but as a conscious member of the Western world,
Brazil would naturally have more intimate relations with those nations
which had the same moral heritage and the same concept of freedom and
progress. Somewhat later he announced, "Brazil will not permit Commu-
nism in its territory and will not make deals with Communism in the
Americas." Named Ambassador to Portugal in December 1963 (he was not
due to arrive in Lisbon until April 196)1-), da Cunha has carved an illus-
trious career despite the fact that he suffers from acute nervous ten-
sion and reportedly has been afflicted with palsy for a number of years.
Included in his long and checkered career are assignments at the United
Nations as well as in Argentina, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Bel-
gium, Chile, Paraguay, Cuba and the USSR.
OFFICE OF
CENTRAL REFERENCE
BIOGRAPHIC
REGISTER
In the summer of 1963 da Cunha was nominated by Brazil as Ambas-
sador to France. It was felt at the time that he was the man who could
re-establish normal diplomatic relations between the two nations be-
cause of his supposed personal relationship with French President
Charles de Gaulle. However, France refused to act on the Brazilian
request for agrement, and in November (amid considerable bitter
recrimination in the Brazilian press) da Cunha's nomination was with-
drawn. The French refusal was presumably a part of the Franco-
Brazilian "lobster war" over fishing rights off the Brazilian continental
shelf. Subsequently, it was rumored in Foreign Office circles that da
Cunha might be sent to Washington. Da Cunha's nomination to Lisbon
was probably not a demotion, given the special relationship between
Portugal and Brazil. The fact that da Cunha is an old-school,
professional diplomat, with pro-US leanings caused the US Embassy in
Rio to feel he might well have been passed over for the Washington
job because of his lack of political influence, sympathies, and con-
nections with the Goulart government.
S-E-
GROUP 1
Excluded from automatic
downgrading and
declassification
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4.1P,
NNW
Vasco Tristao Leitao da CUNHA (cont)
Vasco Tristao Leitao da Cunha was born 2 September 1903 in the
then Federal District of Rio de Janeiro. After receiving a bachelor
of social and juridical sciences degree from the University of Rio de
Janeiro, he entered the diplomatic service in 1927, receiving his first
assignment abroad two years later in Lima. In 1941 he was appointed
Under Secretary of Justice, and he was acting Minister of Justice at
the outbreak of World War II. He then showed himself to be staunchly
pro-Ally and pro-United States, proving his courage and the sincerity
of his sentiments by ordering the arrest of the allegedly Nazi-
sympathizing chief of police of Rio, Felinto Muller, although this
arrest was bound to, and did, precipitate an internal political
crisis. After his return to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs late
in 1942, da Cunha was sent to Lisbon as First Secretary of the
mission. He was at that time reported somewhat embittered against
then Foreign Minister Oswaldo Aranha's failure to accord him a rank
commensurate with his former cabinet position.
In addition to being a professional diplomat of great competence,
da Cunha has unusual honesty and integrity. He convincingly demon-
strated the latter qualities when, as secretary general of the
Foreign Office in 1961, he publicly disavowed the trade negotiations
of Janio Quadros' emissary, Joao Dantas, with the East German regime
on the ground that these negotiations were being carried on at a
level and in a manner inconsistent with the absence of diplomatic
relations between the two countries. Quadros thereupon forced da
Cunha's resignation as secretary general, and until his appointment
to Moscow in April 1962 (which all sectars of Brazilian public opinion
applauded) da Cunha served on the Foreign Office's Promotion Board.
While secretary general, da Cunha was of unfailing assistance to the
US Embassy in Rio, though his effectiveness as a contact was limited
by overrulings from above.
Prior to his appointment as secretary general in February 1961,
da Cunha served for four years as Ambassador to Havana and in early
1961 made a trip there, reportedly to convey a Brazilian offer of
mediation between the United States and Cuba. He insisted he had gone
merely to bid his good-byes. While Ambassador to Havana in the early
stages of the Castro regime da Cunha was considered sympathetic to
Fidel Castro.
/His views changed
rapidly, however, so that after his return to Rio his home became a
gathering place for exiled anti-Castroites. Da Cunha's wife (who
has a reputation for being morally weak and who in March 1960
/and daughter, as well as the Foreign Minister him-
self, have been praised highly by Cuban refugees in Rio for help
extended them both in Cuba and Brazil.
S-E-
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S- -E-T
Vasco Tristao LeitAo da CUNHA
(cont)
Da Cunha and his wife, Virginia, are known to have two children.
The Foreign Minister speaks French, Spanish and fluent English, in
addition to his native Portuguese.
TRS:kvm July 1964
S-E-C-
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