Evening star., 1962-01-31

trough a controversial actor
chance of gaining even the
minimum IA votes necessary.
Opinion Has Impact
United States domestic opin.
ion. bluntly expressed here by
the four congressional mem
bers of the delegation, obvi-
ously had an impact on confer.
ence. With all the subtlety Of
local politicians campaigning
for reelection they battered
home the message that the
future of the Alliance for Prog.
resS was being decided here.
But that was their assigned
task in delegation. Indeed
they did it so we'll that in the
early days conference there
were rumors about a split in
the United States delegation
between the congressman and
the professional diplomats. In
fact, though, the diplomats
were spreading a similar mes
sage, but in more soothing
tones.
In the end the congressional
delegation came out with full
praise for diplomatic talents
of Mr.. RuSk.
In many ways the Latin
American allies that composed
final majority represented the
greatest embarrassment to the
United States here. With the
exception of Costa Rica,
Colombia. the Dominican Re-
public, Venezuela and Uruguay
they include just those con-
servative oligarchies the Alli-
ance for Progress is attempting
to change.
The real danger is that the
open division dramatized at this
meeting will overshadow the
genuine accomplishments. With
justice United States officials
point out that with or without
the exclusion of Castro'S Cuba
from the OAS, steps were taken
here which would have been
unthinkable even six month
ago.
Big Achievement
The Greatest achievement is
the unanimous condemnation
of Cuban communism and the
declaration of its incompati-
bility with nter-American prin-
ciples. Quite rightly Mr.. RuSk
noted when the long wrangle
ended that the difference was
over how to exclude Cuba from
OAS not whether to exclude
Cuba.
Every one agrees that the
clear pronouncement by Castro
at the beginning of December
that he is a Marxist-Leninist
and building a Communist state
in Cuba laid a firm foundation
for drawing the line between
him and the rest of hemisphere
Additional icing on cake
came in the unanimous decision
to exclude Cuba from the In.
ter-American Defense Board
although Castro representatives
have already been effectively
banned by United States from
the board for the past ten
months.
Hit at SubverSiOn
The United States also gained
near unanimous approval for 6
special OAS subcommittee
against subversion in the Carib-
bean. Due to Latin fears of g
possible camouflage for a new
invasion of Cuba, the origina,
United States proposal to put
the security committee under
the military in the inter-Amer-
lean defense board was changed
to give control to the executive
OAS council.
From the beginning United
States officials have main
tained what they wanted mos
from this meeting was the psy.
Geological impact of a firm col
lective stand against Mr.. Cas-
tro. They now have achieved
| it.
No one believes this confer
ence will dent Mr.. Castro
power in Cuba. But no matte,
what happens in Cuba tn,
inter-American system will
never be quite the same again
after the decisions taken here
The conference has unmis
takeably dramatized the dawl
of a new era in the America
where the big powers to tn,
south no longer doci,ely follow
the lead of the United States
In succinct words of one de
fiant Latin diplomat, "The day
of the satellite system in tn
Americas are over. Now W
must construct a genuine al
lance"
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