LETTER TO THE HONORABLE JOHN A. MCCONE FROM DEAN RUSK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R000800100018-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 14, 2003
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: November 17, 1961
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2003/04/24: CIA-RDP80B01676R000800100018-6
THE SECRETARY OF STATE ;,f ,_ ~%p~.
C
WASHINGTON
~r ember 1'7, 1961
As you are aware, the President has expressed a particular
interest in the need for an imaginative, energetic and progressive
labor program for Latin America in the context of our broader ef-
forts in that area under the Alliance for Progress. I know that
your Agency, like the Department of State, fully shares the view
that we should, as a matter of urgency, establish and carry out
such a program.
In order to insure the necessary coordination of activities
in this field, I propose to establish a Latin American Labor Com-
mittee under the Chairmanship of the Assistant Secretary of State
for Inter-American Affairs. This Committee will consist of repre-
sentatives, at the Assistant Secretary or equivalent level, of the
agencies principally concerned: The Department of State, .including
the Agency for International Development, the Department of Labor,
the Central Intelligence Agency, and the United States Information
Agency. Mr. Richard Goodwin of the White Housn staff will also be
invited to sit regularly with the Committee. Representatives of
other agencies may be invited from time to time when matters in
which they have a direct interest are to be discussed.
The primary purpose of tY3s Committee will be to insure ef-
fective and timely communication among the agencies concerned in
order to achieve concerted action in this field. The Committee
should, upon its creation, make a comprehensive review of the gen-
eral effectiveness of total United States labor activities (public
and private) in Latin America, and propose to the agencies concerned
any action necessary to make trese activities 'better serve the national
interest. It should also make recommendations to the agencies con-
cerned for concerted action programs in each Latin American country
designed to strengthen labor institutions and programs essential to
the achievement of sound country development plans. Finally, it
should keep activities under continuing review in order to insure
that recommended programs are carried out and that the necessary
adaptations are made to reflect changing situations.
I believe this Committee will. work best if it operates in a
flexible and informal way. In its present early stages, however,
it should meet at least onoe a week at the call. of the Chairman.
The Honorable
John A. McCone,
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
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STATE review(s) completed.
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In order to avoid the need for a formal staff, I am asking Nfr.
Henry Hammond of the Bureau of Inter-American t~ffairs, working
with Mr. Joaquin Bazan of the Department of Labor, to take charge
of the preparations for these meetings snd to circulate agendas,
minutes and necessary papers.
I would appreciate your inf orming me at your earliest con-
venience of the name of the official you designate to represent
the Agency on try s Committee, as well as of the name of a staff
official who can serve as point of contact for the circulation of
papers.
:sincerely yours,
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