Diplomat's Difficulties

Pink-cheeked, blunt Richard C. Patterson Jr., who had served three stormy years as U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia, looked forward to a quieter time when he took on his new diplomatic assignment to tree-shaded Guatemala City. That was 17 months ago. Last fortnight, weary and out of sorts, Patterson was back in Washington, and the Guatemalan government was asking for his recall on the ground that he had intervened in the nation's domestic affairs.-The State Department insisted that Patterson had merely flown to the U.S. for a medical checkup. But as soon as the ambassador had taken off for Washington, a campaign against him broke out in the Guatemalan press. The semi-official Diario de la Manana labeled him an old-school imperialist. The Guatemalan Labor Federation's leftist political action committee charged that Patterson had engaged in "a great imperialist conspiracy against the leaders of Guatemalan institutions." The windy press charges seemed to sum up just about all Guatemala had to say against Patterson. Guatemala's official protest, delivered verbally in Washington by Ambassador to the U.S. Dr. Antonio Goubaud Carrera, cited no specific evidence.

Best guess was that Patterson had trod on the pink toes of President Juan Jose Arevalo's "Spiritual Socialist" government by harping too strongly on the influence of Communists in Guatemala. No responsible observer has claimed that Arevalo's government is run from Moscow. But some open Communist sympathizers (the party itself is legally banned) have risen to key positions in the labor movement, and have taken advantage of government support to badger U.S. companies.

Diplomat Patterson, a former RKO executive, thought he saw his duty clearly. "We are trying to work out here in Guatemala," he later explained, "a pattern for containing Communism and injustice to U.S. companies everywhere." But he never seemed to get the knack of dealing with touchy, prideful Latins.

Last month Arevalo apparently decided that he had had enough of Patterson's direct talk. At about the same time that he asked for the ambassador's recall, he posted extra guards at the residency and let word get about 'that it was to protect Patterson against a threat to his life. A few days after that, the ambassador departed.

At week's end, as Patterson was resting in the Bahamas, the State Department called in Dr. Carrera and roundly rejected his government's protest. But whatever the diplomatic niceties of the situation, it seemed clear that Patterson and Guatemala were thoroughly fed up with each other; if he ever went back it would probably be to pack his trunks.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.