Remarks to the Embassy Staff and to Members of Chilean-American Groups in Santiago.

Mr. Ambassador, my fellow citizens, and friends of the United States in Chile:

I am delighted to see all of you this morning. It is heartening to meet individuals who are actually practicing a people-to-people program. Many of you, as members of our Embassy staff, devote much of your time to promoting Chilean-American understanding. But all of you are ambassadors of good will. I assure you this is encouraging to me.

To paraphrase the opening clause of the UNESCO constitution: since difficulties among nations begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that good international relations must be constructed.

Unfortunately, as all of you must know, despite all the advances in modern communication, there exist in the American Republics serious misunderstandings which impede the resolution of many problems that beset us.

The people of the United States do not have as deep a knowledge of our sister American Republics as they should. But the American people do prize good relations with Latin America, not only because of an undoubted material interest, but also because we have a genuine fondness for all our neighbors. If the United States sometimes proposes or even takes actions which seem not in harmony with this feeling, it is, I assure you, not a mistake of the heart, but a lack of sufficient knowledge.

Unfortunately, too, serious misunderstandings of the United States exist in all our sister Republics. It is astounding, for example, to hear it said time and again that the United States is doing more for other areas of the world than it is for Latin America. Nothing could be more erroneous.

Certainly, the United States has given generously of its resources in helping rebuild vast areas that were destroyed in the common fight against Nazi tyranny, and in helping construct a defense perimeter for the protection of freedom. But these expenditures have benefited all free nations, including Latin America. And, at the same time, our public and private institutions have extended vast loans, technical assistance, and some grant aid to help our sister Republics speed their development.

Investments and loans outstanding in Latin America now total more than $11 billion, and new private and public credits which become available each year amount to nearly $ 1 billion, with beneficial side effects of much more than this magnitude.

This movement of capital continues, even though today we find that because--and I mean North America--we find that because of the heavy burdens we carry and changes in international trade, we are experiencing an unfavorable financial balance in international transactions of several billion dollars a year.

Despite this, we are not decreasing our help to Latin America. Indeed, two new credit instrumentalities are coming into being, with a substantial share of their funds being provided by the United States. One of them, the Inter-American Development Bank, has just elected a distinguished Chilean as its first President.

I have actually heard it said in several countries that the United States "crushes the economies of Latin America in order to enrich itself." When I first heard this, I did not take it seriously at all. And then I realized, although its falsity soon becomes apparent to any thoughtful person, those who said it spoke in dead earnest.

We of the United States want every American Republic to become strong economically--as well as politically and socially. If for no other reason, we would want this because our trade with each country will increase as that country improves its economy. But we also want it just as one wants to see members of his family succeed. And we want it, for we know that only strong nations in our divided world can be sure of retaining their precious freedom.

We want it in order that the undernourished and unhappy people of the world, wherever they may be, may have an opportunity to enjoy the blessings of bread, peace, and liberty.

Then I have heard it said that the United States supports dictators. This is ridiculous. Surely no nation loves liberty more, or more sincerely prays that its benefits and deep human satisfactions may come to all peoples than does the United States.

We do adhere, however, to a policy of self-determination of peoples. We subscribe to and have observed with constancy a cardinal principle of inter-American life--the policy of nonintervention. It is no contradiction of these policies to say that we do all we can to foster freedom and representative democracy throughout the hemisphere. We repudiate dictatorship in any form, right or left. Our role in the United Nations, in the Organization of American States, in two World Wars, and in Korea stands as a beacon to all who love freedom.

I could go on. There are many serious misunderstandings throughout the hemisphere, and one of the most effective contributions an individual can make to hemispheric solidarity is by helping directly to overcome these intellectual shortcomings.

Because of my schedule, my friends, I have only a very few minutes at this meeting. I regret it, because I would like to talk this morning at greater length.

This morning, I received a letter signed by some individuals who are officials in student bodies. They say they represent 25,000, I believe, university students.

This was a letter speaking to me, or of me, in the most respectful and even affectionate terms, but telling about the tremendous errors that the United States of America is making with respect to South America. It says that every bit of the work in the Organization of American States and similar organizations is all in favor of the rich nation, all in favor of the rich individual, is against the weak, whether it be a nation or an individual.

Now I am not going to detail all of the things where they believe the United States is in error. I want to point this out: before individuals who do not carry great responsibilities in the world make decisions and spread information, or what they call information, we should be sure of our facts, we should read history carefully. Let's don't read merely the sensational stories of the newspapers.

Only within the week I read an account of testimony given in Congress by a great friend of mine--been a friend of mine for 30 years. I was astonished when I saw this story reported. This morning I got the full text, and everything he said in it was exactly opposite to what I had been told was the fact in a short newspaper account which really apparently was seeking to be a bit sensational.

We must have the facts. We must go to the statistics that are accumulated by honest governments. We must go to history which has been written by historians. We must not talk about these matters with the voice of authority when we have no real information to do it.

Now these students happen to be the people that I am interested in more than any others in the world. The young people of today, with all of their opportunities for learning, the certainty that they are going to take over the responsibilities of government, of business, of the social order, and of education--these are the people in whom we must be interested.

If the United States is to help, we must have some understanding between us. The United States has never, at the end of two World Wars and Korea, added an acre to its territory. We have sought no advantage anywhere, either as a result of war or peaceful help that would give us an advantage at the expense of others.

We are not saints--we know we make mistakes, but our heart is in the right place, and we believe that aid given by the United States to the people who want to work, who welcome some help, who are energetically working for themselves to raise their standards of living, not merely for themselves as individuals but for every single individual in the nation, those are the people from which we get great satisfaction in helping.

I would hope that the students of this great nation could have little bit better sources of information, as seems evident they did not have in the very hasty, even rapid reading of most of the parts of this letter that I saw.

Now I would like to send to them my very warmest greetings. I believe in them, but I do hope, as I say, that they will come to their conclusions on the basis of fact.

I congratulate all of you for what you are doing here in Chile. Your efforts will strengthen still further the friendly working relations of Chile and the United States, and the good neighborliness of all the American Republics.

And I repeat to you one great truth: the peace that we all seek, in justice and in freedom, can be based only on one thing, mutual understanding. Unless we have that among peoples, and eventually governments, which are always seemingly behind the people rather than ahead of them--unless we have that kind of understanding--mutual understanding--we are not going to have true peace.

Each of you that helps in the tiniest way to bring about this understanding is thereby promoting the peace for himself, his children, and those who are to come after him.

It is a pleasure to see you--and good luck to all of you.