Straight Arms Talk

U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert B. Anderson, a business-minded Texan, took the floor in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies last week with the official statement of U.S. policy at the Buenos Aires Economic Conference. The policy emerged mostly as a clearly reasoned plug for the kind of development job private capital and U.S. aid have been doing in Latin America, and a polite rejection of hopeful Latin American suggestions for more lavish U.S. handouts. But wedged in the middle was a mild shocker. "Military expenditures," warned the Secretary, "by their very nature act as a brake on rising living standards. They should be held to a level that will provide an adequate posture of defense."

As all the delegates knew, the military persuades or forces many Latin American governments to spend a fifth of the budget for arms that rarely see use in the country's defense. Item: Tiny, poverty-ridden Ecuador owns twelve Meteor jet fighters, six Canberra jet bombers, two jet trainers. Because the U.S. has supplied many of the arms under mutual-defense treaties, some of the overarmed Latin Americans had sharp retorts for Anderson's remarks. "Tell it to the Pentagon," said an Ecuadorian. But the overall reception was surprisingly friendly. Probable reason: Secretary Anderson was talking to Finance Ministers, who must find the money, rather than to military chiefs, who encourage the arms races.

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