Disturbing secrets: US-Costa Rican relations during the Nixon administration

ABSTRACT

Friendly relations between the United States and Costa Rica were strained during the early 1970s as the latter sought the recall of the US ambassador and CIA station chief amidst rumours of coup plots against influential social democratic president José Figueres. Figueres’s efforts to normalise relations with the Soviet bloc while legalising the Communist Party at home provided the broader context. Secret US intelligence about a pact between Figueres, local communists, and the Soviet Union drove the conflict. Drawing on declassified US documents, this study seeks the right balance between Latin American agency and US hegemony during the Cold War.

KEYWORDS:

• United States
• Costa Rica
• Cold War
• José Figueres
• Manuel Mora Valverde
• communism
• Nixon administration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author

Notes

¹ Don Bohning, “CIA Plot Rumored in Costa Rica,” Miami Herald, 7 February 1971, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP73B00296R000100060051-9, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Electronic Reading Room (USCIARR).

² Miami Herald, “No Reason And No Excuse for Meddling In Costa Rica,” 7 February 1971, CIA-RDP80-01601R000500020001-7, USCIARR.

³ Silvia Elena Molina Vargas, “Figueres Ferrer y Mora Valverde: Diplomacia del Café y Acercamiento de Antagónicos (1971–72),” Diálogos Revista Electrónica de Historia 9 (2008), 1903–23. https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/dialogos/article/view/31319 (accessed August 5, 2018).

⁴ Charles D. Ameringer, Don Pepe: A Political Biography of José Figueres of Costa Rica (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1978); and Patrick J. Iber, “‘Who Will Impose Democracy?’ Sacha Volman and the Contradictions of CIA Support for the Anticommunist Left in Latin America,” Diplomatic History 37, no. 5 (2013): 995–1028.

⁵ John Peeler, “Costa Rica: Neither Client nor Defiant,” in Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Policy, ed. Frank O. Mora and Jeanne A. K. Hey (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), 31–45; and Graeme S. Mount, “Costa Rica and the Cold War, 1948–90,” Canadian Journal of History 50, no. 2 (2015): 290–316.

⁶ These documents, a number of which were obtained through the author’s FOIA requests, are available at the US National Archives-College Park, MD (USNA) with a few others at the Richard Milhous Nixon Library (RMNL). However, when documents are available in Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) or at the CIA electronic reading room, that is the citation given.

⁷ Among standouts with a broad scope are Hal Brands, Latin America’s Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010); Max Paul Friedman, “Retiring the Puppets, Bringing Latin American Back In: Recent Scholarship on United States-Latin American Relations,” Diplomatic History 27, no. 5 (2003): 621–36; and Tony Smith, “New Bottles for New Wine: A Pericentric Framework for the Study of the Cold War,” Diplomatic History 24, no. 4 (2000): 567–91. Specific to Costa Rica during the Cold War, see Jeanne A. K. Hey and Lynn M. Kuzma, “Anti-U.S. Foreign Policy of Dependent States: Mexican and Costa Rican Participation in Central American Peace Plans,” Comparative Political Studies 26, no. 1 (1993): 30–62; and Peeler, Costa Rica. For neighbouring countries, see Charles D. Brockett, “An Illusion of Omnipotence: U.S. Policy towards Guatemala, 1954–60,” Latin American Politics and Society 44, no. 1 (2002): 91–126; Michael Cangemi, “Ambassador Frank Ortiz and Guatemala’s ‘Killer President’, 1976–80,” Diplomatic History 42, no. 4 (2018): 613–39; Michael D. Gambone, Eisenhower, Somoza, and the Cold War in Nicaragua 1953–61 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997); and Renata Keller, Mexico’s Cold War: Cuba, the United States, and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015).

⁸ Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Mark Atwood Lawrence, and Julio E. Moreno, “Introduction,” in Beyond the Eagle’s Shadow: New Histories of Latin America’s Cold War, ed. Garrard-Burnett, Lawrence, and Moreno (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2013), 12.

⁹ Kyle Longley, The Sparrow and the Hawk: Costa Rica and the United States During the Rise of José Figueres (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1997).

¹⁰ Ibid., x.

¹¹ James C. Tanner, “Rocking the Boat: Costa Rica’s Figueres Woos Russia, Causing U.S., Latin Concern,” Wall Street Journal, 28 April 1972, CIA-RDP80-01601R000500020001-7, USCIARR.

¹² This includes Henry Kissinger’s massive memoir of the period, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979). Exceptions are Hal Brands, “Richard Nixon and Economic Nationalism in Latin America: The Problem of Expropriations, 1969–74,” Diplomacy & Statecraft 18, no. 1 (2007): 215–35; Brands, “The United States and the Peruvian Challenge, 1968–75,” Diplomacy & Statecraft 21, no. 3 (2010): 471–90; and Mark Atwood Lawrence, “History from Below: The United States and Latin America in the Nixon Years,” in Nixon in the World: American Foreign Relations, 1969–77, ed. Fredrik Logevall and Andrew Preston (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). There are also a few Nixon-era chapters in broader country-specific monographs.

¹³ Stephen G. Rabe, The Killing Zone: The United States Wages Cold War in Latin America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 118.

¹⁴ See especially Tanya Harmer, Allende’s Chile and the Inter-American Cold War (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011).

¹⁵ “Review of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America,” March 1971, NSC Institutional Files, folder ‘NSSM-108 1 of 2 [2 of 3]’, Box H-177, RMNL.

¹⁶ This paragraph and the next three draw on Ameringer, Don Pepe and Longley, Sparrow and the Hawk, as well as Ameringer, Democracy in Costa Rica (New York: Praeger, 1982) and John A. Booth, Costa Rica: Quest for Democracy (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998).

¹⁷ In 1975 Figueres claimed to have “worked in 20,000 ways” for the CIA “all over Latin America” during the prior 30 years. See “Costa Rican Ex-President Admits His Long CIA Role,” Los Angeles Times, 10 March 1975, CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510160-9, USCIARR.

¹⁸ Donald Barnes, interview with Clarence S. Boonstra, 17 November 1989 (Arlington, VA, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project [ADST]), 37 https://adst.org/oral-history/oral-history-interviews/ (accessed August 6, 2017); and Frank O. Mora and Jerry Wilson Cooney, Paraguay and the United States: Distant Allies (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2007), 139.

¹⁹ Charles Stuart Kennedy, interview with Samuel F. Hart, 12 June 1992, 136–7, ADST.

²⁰ Quoted in “Chronology of Events,” ARA/Deputy Assistant Secretary, Subject & Country Files, folder “Fascell Committee Hearing,” Box 2, Record Group 59 [RG 59], USNA.

²¹ Kennedy, interview with Hart, 137; Time, “Costa Rica: Freelance Diplomacy,” 8 March 1971, CIA-RDP80-01601R000500020001-7, USCIARR.

²² Barnes, interview with Boonstra, 37.

²³ A thorough chronology of events for November 1968 through 9 February 1971 can be found in “Chronology of Events,” RG 59, USNA.

²⁴ Manuel Mora Valverde, “Detrás de la campaña antisoviética se mueven grandes intereses,” Libertad (San José), 11 December 1971, 7.

²⁵ “Chronology of Events,” RG 59, USNA.

²⁶ “Joint Assessment: The Situation and Trends in Costa Rica,” 23 April 1971, CIA-RDP85T00875R001100100051-9, USCIARR; telegram 4334 from USUN to Department of State, 2 November 1972, Subject-Numeric Files, folder “Pol 23-9,” Box 2218, RG 59, USNA.

²⁷ Ameringer, Don Pepe, 259.

²⁸ Quoted in ibid., 258; airgram 178 from San Jose to Department of State, 2 August 1970, Subject-Numeric Files, folder “Pol 15-1,” box 2218, RG 59, USNA.

²⁹ Memorandum from Broe to Meyer, 11 December 1970, ARA/Deputy Assistant Secretary Subject & Country Files, folder “Costa Rica – Secret/Sensitive,” box 2, RG 59, USNA.

³⁰ Bohning, “CIA Plot.”

³¹ Francis B. Kent, “Fallout: Costa Rica ‘Plot’ Still Hurting U.S.,” Los Angeles Times, 28 February 1971, RDP80-01601R000500020001-7, USCIA.

³² Peter Laine, “House Will Probe Costa Rica ‘Plot’,” Miami Herald, 9 February 1971, CIA-RDP80-01601R000500020001-7, USCIARR.

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ Quoted in Benyamin Wells, “U.S. Recalls C.I.A. Chief in Costa Rica,” New York Times, 11 February 1971, CIA-RDP80-01601R000500020001-7, USCIARR.

³⁵ Laine, “House Will Probe.”

³⁶ Time, “Costa Rica”; Kent, “Fallout: Costa Rica.” Unfounded allegations of US involvement in coup plotting resurfaced at the end of 1971. Although this was a more serious plot, it did not complicate US-Costa Rican relations nearly as much and will not be discussed here.

³⁷ William Montalbano, “Costa Rica, U.S. Patch Up Spat Over CIA Man’s Indiscretions,” Miami Herald, 25 April 1971, CIA-RDP80-01601R000500020001-7, USCIARR.

³⁸ Memorandum, Skol to Breen, 2 March 1971, ARA/Office of Central American Affairs, Records Relating to Costa Rica (ARA/CEN/CR), folder “Pol – CASP CR 1971,” box 6, RG 59, USNA.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ Memorandum from Broe to Meyer, 11 December 1970, RG 59, USNA; Memorandum from Karamessines to Kissinger, 25 March 1971, FRUS, 1969–72, vol. E-10, ed. Douglas Kraft and James Siekmeier (Washington, DC, 2009), doc. 185.

⁴¹ Memorandum from Vaky to Kissinger, 11 April 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 173.

⁴² Vaky also presented a fourth option for later consideration that remains redacted. The editorial introduction identifies it as paying off Figueres with US government funds. See FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 167a.

⁴³ Memorandum from Vaky to Kissinger, 15 September 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 178.

⁴⁴ W. Haven North interview with Lawrence E. Harrison, 12 December 1996, ADST; Kennedy, interview with Hart. However, bugging is not mentioned in any of the documents that I have read.

⁴⁵ ”Chronology of Events,” RG 59, USNA; “Items To Discuss With Ambassador Ploeser,” n. d., ARA/CEN/CR, folder “Pol Briefing Papers,” RG 59, USNA.

⁴⁶ Memorandum from Helms to Kissinger, 17 November 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 180.

⁴⁷ Memorandum from Kissinger to Nixon, 20 November 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 181.

⁴⁸ Memorandum from Broe to Meyer, 11 December 1970, RG 59, USNA.

⁴⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² Memorandum from Nachmanoff to Kissinger, 9 January 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 183.

⁵³ Letter from Ploeser to Meyer, 1 September 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 190.

⁵⁴ “Chronology of Events,” RG 59, USNA.

⁵⁵ Memorandum from Nachmanoff to Kissinger, 9 January 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 183.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ Memoradum from CIA, undated, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 172.

⁵⁹ Memorandum from Helms to Kissinger, 17 November 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 180; Memorandum from Broe to Meyer, 11 December 1970, RG 59, USNA.

⁶⁰ In Ameringer’s view, Figueres was “basically honest” but “believed that the line between right and wrong was wider for him because his intentions were good” (Ameringer, Don Pepe, 279).

⁶¹ Memorandum from Vaky to Kissinger, 11 April 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 173; Memorandum from Karamessines to Kissinger, 25 March 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 185; Memorandum, 5 November 1968, ARA/CEN/CR, folder “Pol 6,” Box 5, RG 59, USNA.

⁶² Memorandum from Jorden to Kissinger, 9 August 1972, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 194.

⁶³ Memorandum from Broe to Meyer, 11 December 1970, RG 59, USNA.

⁶⁴ Airgram A-91 an Jose to Department of State, 9 May 1971, Subject-Numeric Files, folder “Pol 15-1,” box 2218, RG 59, USNA.

⁶⁵ Memorandum of Conversation, 7 December 1970, Bureau of Intelligence Country Files, folder “Costa Rica,” box 2, RG 59, USNA.

⁶⁶ Airgram A-154, from San Jose to Department of State, 26 September 1971, Subject-Numeric Files, folder “Pol 12,” box 12, RG 59, USNA.

⁶⁷ Eduardo Mora Valverde, 70 años de militancia comunista (San José, 2000), 258–60.

⁶⁸ Memorandum from Karamessines to Kissinger, 25 March 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 185.

⁶⁹ Memoradum from CIA, undated, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 172.

⁷⁰ Memorandum from Broe to Meyer, 11 December 1970, RG 59, USNA.

⁷¹ Airgram A-282, from San Jose to Department of State, 20 December 1970, RG 59, USNA.

⁷² “Situation and Trends in Costa Rica,” 23 April 1971, USCIARR .

⁷³ Memorandum from Stephens to Rabenold, 7 May 1971, ARA/CEN/CR, folder “Pol – CASP CR 1971,” box 6, RG 59, USNA; airgram A-91, San Jose to Department of State, 9 May 1971, RG 59, USNA.

⁷⁴ Airgram A-91 San Jose to Department of State, 9 May 1971, RG 59, USNA.

⁷⁵ Airgram A-154, from San Jose to Department of State, 26 September 1971, RG 59, USNA.

⁷⁶ Memorandum from Karamessines to Kissinger, 25 March 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 185.

⁷⁷ Memorandum of Conversation, 7 December 1970, RG 59, USNA.

⁷⁸ Telegram 2047, from Department of State to San Jose, 30 July 1971, Subject-Numeric File, folder “Costa Rica,” box 2216, RG 59, USNA.

⁷⁹ “The Soviet Role in Latin America (NIE 13),” 29 April 1971, NSC Institutional Meeting Files (SRGM), folder “LA/Car 8/17/71 [3 of 3],” Box H-059, 7, RMNL.

⁸⁰ Barnes, interview with Boonstra, 38.

⁸¹ For example, see telegram 2047, from Department of State to San Jose, 30 July 1971, Subject-Numeric File, folder “Costa Rica,” box 2216, RG 59, USNA.

⁸² Airgram A-71, San Jose to Department State, 10 May 1972, Subject-Numeric File, folder “Pol 14,” box 2218, RG 59, USNA.

⁸³ Ibid.

⁸⁴ Memorandum from Breen to Meyer, 22 September 1970, ARA/CEN/CR, folder “Pol Briefing Paper,” box 6, RG 59, USNA.

⁸⁵ Ameringer was drawing on his interview with Francisco Morales. See Ameringer, Don Pepe, 254, and more generally, 258–63.

⁸⁶ Airgram A-282, from San Jose to Department of State, 20 December 1970, RG 59, USNA; CIA, Intelligence Memorandum 2111/71, 29 December 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 191.

⁸⁷ Memorandum from Nachmanoff to Kissinger, 9 January 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 183.

⁸⁸ Telegram 2860 from San Jose to Department of State, 10 November 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 179.

⁸⁹ Memoradum from CIA, undated, FRUS, 1969–72, vol. E-10, doc. 172.

⁹⁰ Telegram 810 from San Jose to Department of State, 1 April 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 186.

⁹¹ Airgram A-190, from San Jose to Department of State, 23 August 1970, Subject-Numeric Files, folder “Pol 1,” RG 59, USNA.

⁹² Telegram 1246, from San Jose to Department of State, 21 May 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 174.

⁹³ Telegram 810, from San Jose to Department of State, 1 April 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 186.

⁹⁴ “Chronology of Events,” n.d., RG 59, USNA.

⁹⁵ CIA, Intelligence Memorandum 2111/71, 29 December 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 191.

⁹⁶ Longley, The Sparrow and the Hawk, 162, 29.

⁹⁷ Ameringer, Don Pepe, 257.

⁹⁸ Airgram A-282, from San Jose to Department of State, 20 December 1970, RG 59, USNA.

⁹⁹ “Costa Rica: Unrest,” 29 January 1971, Weekly Summary, CIA-RDP79-00927A008500040001-6, USCIARR.

¹⁰⁰ Memorandum from Vaky to Kissinger, 15 September 1970, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 178. This is the only reference to such covert manipulation that I find in the documentary record, but it is also the interpretation of the FRUS editors.

¹⁰¹ Memorandum from Karamessines to Kissinger, 25 March 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 185.

¹⁰² Airgram 178 from San Jose to Department of State, 2 August 1970, RG 59, USNA.

¹⁰³ Memorandum of Conversation, 9 December 1970, Bureau of Intelligence, Country File, folder “Costa Rica,” box 2, RG 59, USNA.

¹⁰⁴ Airgram A-282, from San Jose to Department of State, 20 December 1970, RG 59, USNA.

¹⁰⁵ “Soviet Role in Latin America,” 9, RMNL; Keller, Mexico’s Cold War.

¹⁰⁶ See, for example, Movimiento Costa Rica Libre, “A qué vienen los emisarios sovieticos a Costa Rica?” La Nación (San José), 13 May 1971, 8.

¹⁰⁷ “Situation and Trends in Costa Rica,” 23 April 1971, USCIARR; telegram 810 from San Jose to Department of State, 1 April 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 186.

¹⁰⁸ Memorandum for the Record, 6 May 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 187.

¹⁰⁹ Telegram 2000 from Costa Rica to Department of State, 27 July 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 189.

¹¹⁰ “Costa Rica,” 2 December 1971, Central Intelligence Bulletin, CIA-RDP79T00975A020600050001-7, USCIARR; CIA, Intelligence Memorandum 2111/71, 29 December 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 191.

¹¹¹ “Costa Rica CASP – ARA Position Paper,” n.d., ARA/CEN/CR, folder “Pol 1-1,” box 5, RG 59, USNA; CIA, Intelligence Memorandum 2111/71, 29 December 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 191.

¹¹² “Situation and Trends in Costa Rica,” 23 April 1971, USCIARR.

¹¹³ “Situation and Trends in Costa Rica,” 23 April 1971, USCIARR; CIA, Intelligence Memorandum 2111/71, 29 December 1971, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 191; “Costa Rica CASP – ARA Position Paper,” n.d.

¹¹⁴ Memorandum from Jorden to Kissinger, 9 August 1972, FRUS, vol. E-10, doc. 194.

¹¹⁵ Kennedy, interview with Hart, 48.

¹¹⁶ Bohning, “CIA Plot.”

¹¹⁷ Kennedy, interview with Hart, 138.

¹¹⁸ Ibid., 141–2; North, interview with Harrison, 23.

¹¹⁹ Kent, “Fallout: Costa Rica.”

¹²⁰ Montalbano, “Costa Rica, U.S. Patch Up”; Bohning, “CIA Plot.”

¹²¹ Kennedy, interview with Hart, as well as next two paragraphs.

¹²² Memorandum from Moon to Rabenold, 7 May 1971 and airgram A-38, 20 May 1971, both ARA/CEN/CR, folder “Pol – CASP CR 1971,” box 6, RG 59, USNA. For his role Hart received that year’s award for “creative dissent” from the American Foreign Service Association but also was “thrown out” of the country by the ambassador.

¹²³ Kennedy, interview with Hart, 50.

¹²⁴ Memorandum, Skol to Breen, 2 March 1971, RG 59, USNA.

¹²⁵ “Review of U.S. Policy TowardLatin America,” RMNL, VII A 9, V 13.

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Charles D. Brockett

Charles D. Brockett is professor emeritus of political science at Sewanee: The University of the South. He is the author of two books and numerous journal articles and book chapters on Central America.