‘More Flags’ Meets Failure: Brazil, the United States, and the Vietnam War

Abstract

As part of its ‘more flags’ campaign, the United States wanted Brazil to fight in the Vietnam War. No Latin American country mattered more to the U.S. effort. The United States considered leveraging an economic loan, naval vessels, and a prioritization of Brazil in inter-American affairs. Many Brazilian officials liked the idea of a greater military presence in Vietnam. They hoped to gain valuable counterrevolutionary experience in a tropical setting akin to their own, curry favor with the United States, and acquire new military technology. Brazil’s greatest proposal centered on a request for modern naval destroyers that would see Brazil baited into combat. But public opinion, self-imposed restrictions, and key individuals ultimately doomed the prospects for Brazil’s entry. This article helps to further internationalize our understanding of the Vietnam War and situate Latin America within the broader context of the global Cold War. It adds to our understanding of the limits that existed in U.S.-Latin American relations, the U.S. commitment to multi-lateralizing its military campaign in Vietnam, and the political capacity of Brazil’s military dictatorship at home.

Keywords:

• Brazil
• United States
• Vietnam War
• more flags
• Latin America

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Tom Plant, Caroline Scotti Vilain, and Michaela Sirois for their help in making this article possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Telegram from [Brazil’s Charge d’affaires] Corção Braga to [Brazil’s foreign minister] Magalhães Pinto, 6 March 1968, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry Archives, Brasilia (hereafter AMRE-B), 600.(85I) – Situação Politica – Vietnam do Sul – ano de 1968.

2 Telegram from Tuthill to Rusk, 22 Nov. 1966, Opening the Archives: Documenting U.S.-Brazil Relations, 1960s-80s, Brown Digital Repository, Brown [University Library]. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:365617/[accessed June 30, 2023].

3 Telegram from Corção Braga. 6 March 1968, AMRE-B, 600.(85I) – Situação Politica – Vietnam do Sul – ano de 1968.

4 For general studies of the U.S. effort in Vietnam, see, for example, Fred Logevall, Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999); Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); For a focus on allied participation, see, for example, Brian Cuddy and Fred Logevall, The Vietnam War in the Pacific World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022); Lawrence, Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005); G. R. Hess, ‘With Friends Like These: Waging War and Seeking ‘More Flags,’ in John Ernst and David L. Anderson (eds.), The War that Never Ends: New Perspectives on the Vietnam War (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2007); Robert M. Blackburn, Mecenaries and Lyndon Johnson’s More Flags’: The Hiring of Korean, Filipino, and Thai Soldiers in the Vietnam War (Jefferson: McFarland Publishing, 1994); George C. Herring, ‘Fighting Without Allies: The International Dimensions of America’s Failure in Vietnam,’ in Marc Jason Gilbert (ed.) Why the North Won the Vietnam War (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 77-95; For U.S.-Brazilian relations, see, James Cameron, ‘US-Brazil Relations,’ Oxford Research Encyclopedia, 30 Sept. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.659; Mônica Hirst, The United States and Brazil: A Long Road of Unmet Expectations (London: Routledge 2004); For Latin American Cold War Studies, see, for example, Hal Brands, Latin America’s Cold War (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012); Thomas C. Field, Jr., Stella Krepp, and Vanni Pattinà (eds.), Latin America and the Global Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020). The best account of Brazil’s possible participation comes from historian Mark Atwood Lawrence in his study of the Johnson Administration’s dealings with the global South, but ultimately he is more concerned with broader trends in the U.S. approach to Brazil and misses key internal dynamics that drove and undermined support for the idea on both sides. See, Lawrence, The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021), 106–40.

5 Lincoln Gordon interview by Paige E. Mulhollan, 10 July 1969, L[yndon] B[aines] J[ohnson] L[ibrary], LBJ Library Oral Histories. https://www.discoverlbj.org/item/oh-gordonl-19690710-1-79-64 [accessed April 22, 2023].

6 B. L. Bruce, ‘Vietnam and the More Flags Campaign, 1964 – 1965: The Search for American Allies in the Commonwealth,’ (MA thesis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2004), 15, 19.

7 Rusk to U.S. Embassies, 1 May 1964, [Austin, Texas] LBJL, Vietnam Memos, N[ational] S[ecurity] F[ile] Country File, Vbox 4, item no. 110, 3–4; Department of State Circular Telegram, For the Ambassador From The President, 2 July 1964, LBJL, Vietnam Cables, NSF Country File, Vietnam, box 6, item no. 45.

8 See, S. A. Ellis, ‘Promoting solidarity at home and abroad: the goals and tactics of the anti-Vietnam War movement in Britain,’ European Review of History, 21 (2014), 558; E. G. H. Pedaliu, “Transatlantic Relations at a Time When ‘More Flags’ Meant ‘No European Flags’: The United States’ War in South-East Asia and Its European Allies, 1964–8,” The International History Review, 35 (2013), 556; J. Colman and J. J. Widén, ‘The Johnson Administration and the Recruitment of Allies in Vietnam, 1964–1968,’ History, 94 (2009), 487; D. L. Anderson, ‘The American-Led Military Coalition in Vietnam: Incentives, Interests, and Interpretations,’ in Cuddy and Logevall (eds.), The Vietnam War in the Pacific World (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2022), 214–31.

9 Stanley Robert Larsen and James Lawton Collins, Jr, Allied Participation in Vietnam (Washington: Department of the Army, 1975), 4.

10 Paper Prepared by the Executive Committee, 2 Dec. 1964, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1964–1968, Vietnam 1964, doc. 433, 971.

11 Mark Atwood Lawrence, The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021), 119.

12 Rusk to Oliver, 21 Dec. 1964, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, NSF, Country File, Chile/Colombia, Box 14.

13 Larsen and Collins Jr, Allied Participation, 6.

14 For general estimates, see Spencer C. Tucker, The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

15 Stephen Rinke, Latin America and the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 136–142.

16 See, for example, Neill Lochery, Brazil: The Fortunes of War: World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil (New York: Basic Books, 2014).

17 ‘When the Mexican Air Force Went to War Alongside America,’ The New York Times, 27 May 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/magazine/world-war-ii-mexican-air-force.html [accessed June 30, 2023].

18 B. L. Coleman, ‘The Colombian Army in Korea, 1950 – 1954,’ The Journal of Military History, 69 (October 2005), 1137–77.

19 Background Paper: Venezuela’s Interest in Viet Nam Peace Efforts, undated, LBJL, NSF, Country File, Latin America – Venezuela and West Indies, box 75.

20 Telegram from Martin to Rusk, 13 Dec. 1965 LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, NSF, Country File, Latin America Argentina, box 6.

21 Martin to Rusk, 9 Feb. 1966, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, NSF, Country File, Latin America, box 6.

22 Martin to Rusk, 2 Dec. 1966, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Argentina, NSF Country File, Latin America, box 6.

23 A. W. Pereira, ‘The US Role in the 1964 Coup in Brazil: A Reassessment,’ Bulletin of Latin American Research, 37 (2018), 5–17.

24 L. A. M. Bandeira, ‘Brazil as a Regional Power and its Relations with the United States,’ Latin American Perspectives, 33 (May 2006), 17.

25 R. G. Santos, ‘Brazilian Foreign Policy and the Dominican Crisis: The Impact of History and Events,’ The Americas, 29 (July 1972), 62–77.

26 Lawrence, End of Ambition, 119.

27 Gordon to Rusk, 26 July 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, NSF Country File, Latin America – Brazil, box 10.

28 ‘Taylor pede tropas do Brasil para o Vietnã,’ Folha de São Paulo, 12 March 1965, 1, 5.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid.

31 Mendes Vianna to Foreign Ministry, 18 March 1965, AMRE-B, 600(85i), Situacão Politica, 1963/66.

32 Gordon to Rusk, 26 July 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, NSF Country File – Latin America – Brazil, box 10.

33 Telegram from the Cabinet (recipient undisclosed), 16 March 1965, AMRE-B, 600.(85I) – Situação Politica Interna, 1.957 à 1.967, Caixa 219.

34 Brazil’s Foreign Ministry to Brazil’s Embassy in Bangkok, 17 March 1965, AMRE-B, 600(85i) – Situacão Politica, 1963/66.

35 Magalhães to Vianna Filho, 30 June 1965, I-40, Pasta 5, Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (hereafter CPDOC), Juracy Magalhães Papers, F[undação] G[etúlio] V[argas].

36 Vianna Filho to Magalhães, 11 July 1965, I-43, CPDOC Juracy Magalhães Papers.

37 Department of State to U.S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, 25 July 1965. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:677170/[June 30, 2023] .

38 Gordon to Rusk, 26 July 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, NSF Country File – Latin America – Brazil, box 10.

39 Ibid.

40 Rusk to Gordon, 27 July 1965. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:677740/.

41 Department of State to U.S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, 25 July 1965. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:677170/[30 June 2023] .

42 Gordon to Rusk, 27 July 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, NSF Country File, Box 10.

43 U.S. Embassy Brasilia (Okun) to U.S. Embassy Rio, 14 Sept. 1965, Opening the Archives: Documenting U.S.-Brazil Relations, 1960s-80s. Brown Digital Repository. Brown [University Library].

44 Telegram from Gordon to Rusk, 22 Sept. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, NSF Country File, Latin America – Brazil, Box 10.

45 Gordon to Rusk, 23 Nov. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 10.

46 Bowdler to Bundy, 13 Dec. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11.

47 Bundy to Johnson, 7 Dec. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11.

48 Harriman to Gordon, 11 Dec. 1965, LBJL, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11; J. Colman, ‘The ‘Most Distinguished Envoy of Peace’: Averell Harriman and the Vietnam War in the Johnson Years,’ The International History Review, 38 (2016), 66–87.

49 Conversation with McGeorge Bundy, 11 Dec. 1965, Miller Center of Public Affairs, Secret White House Tapes, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency. https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/secret-white-house-tapes/conversation-mcgeorge-bundy-december-11-1965 [accessed June 30, 2023].

50 Ibid.

51 Harriman to Gordon, 11 Dec. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, box 11.

52 Gordon to Harriman, 12 Dec. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Box 11, Country File, NSF, Latin America – Brazil, Box 11.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid.

55 Carvalho e Silva to V. Leitão da Cunha, 14 Dec. 1965, AMRE-B, 600(85i) – Situacão Politica, Caixa 219, 1963/66.

56 Telegram from US Ambassador to Rio de Janeiro to Rusk, 17 Dec. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America –Brazil, Country File, NSF, box 11.

57 Ibid.

58 Bundy to President Johnson in Texas, 31 Dec. 1965, F[oreign] R[elations of the] U[nited] S[tates] 1964 – 1968, South and Central America, Mexico, doc. 225, 503–04.

59 US Ambassador to Rio de Janeiro to Rusk, 17 Dec.1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11.

60 Gordon to Rusk, 18 Dec. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Box 11, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF.

61 Lincoln Gordon interview 1 by Paige E. Mulhollan, 10 July 1969, LBJL, LBJ Library Oral Histories. https://www.discoverlbj.org/item/oh-gordonl-19690710-1-79-64.

62 Gordon to Rusk, 17 Dec. 1965, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, box 11.

63 Lincoln Gordon interview 1 by Paige E. Mulhollan, 10 July 1969, LBJL, LBJ Library Oral Histories. https://www.discoverlbj.org/item/oh-gordonl-19690710-1-79-64.

64 G. M. Neto, ‘Missão Vietnam em Brasília,’ Geneton.com.br, 9 March 2004, http://www.geneton.com.br/archives/000013.html [June 30, 2023].

65 State Department and Defense Department to U.S. Embassies Rio de Janeiro, Bueno Aires, Lima, Santiago, Bogota, Caracas, 23 Feb. 1966, National Archives, DEF-19–LA (07/01/1965), Box 1672.

66 Sayre to Mann, 3 March 1966, National Archives, DEF-19–LA (07/01/1965), Box 1672.

67 Meira Penna to Pio Correa, 1 March 1966, AMRE-B, 600(85i) – Situacão Politica, Caixa 219, 1963/66.

68 Ibid.

69 M.G. Valente to V.T. Leitão da Cunha, 29 Nov. 1965, AMRE-B, 600(85i) – Situacão Politica, Caixa 219, 1963/66.

70 Letter From A.D. Queiroz to J.M. Magalhães, 19 September 1966, AMRE-B, 600(85i) – Situacão Politica, 1963/66, Caixa 219.

71 Letter From Pio Correa to Queiroz, 30 Sept. 1966, AMRE-B, 600(85i) – Situacão Politica, 1963/66, Caixa 219; Letter from Meira Penna to Brazil’s Ministry of the Interior, 9 Sept. 1966, AMRE-B, 600(85i) – Situacão Politica, Caixa 219, 1963/66.

72 S. P. Brewers, ‘UN Team Sought on Cambodia Line,’ The New York Times, 29 July 1964, 2.

73 See, Aide-Memoire from Brazil’s Embassy in Washington to U.S. State Department, 17 Oct. 1966, Brown, Brown Papers.

74 Tuthill to Rusk, 16 December 1966, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11.

75 Tuthill to Rusk, 31 December 1966, Brown, Brown Papers.

76 Ibid.

77 John D. Tuthill, interview by Henry B. Ryan, 11 March 1992, The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mss/mfdip/2004/2004tut02/2004tut02.pdf [accessed June 30, 2023].

78 Lawrence, End of Ambition, 129.

79 Rusk to Tuthill, 29 Dec. 1966, Brown, Brown Papers; Telegram from Tuthill to Rusk, 16 Dec. 1966, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 1.

80 Tuthill to Rusk, 31 Dec. 1966, Brown, Brown Papers.

81 Tuthill to Rusk, undated, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11.

82 Ibid.

83 Ibid; Tuthill to Rusk, 16 Dec. 1966, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11.

84 Ibid.

85 See, Lochery, Brazil, 60–62.

86 Memorandum of Conversation, by Kidder, 17 Aug. 1951, FRUS, 1951, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, doc. 713, 1215–16.

87 Tuthill to Rusk, undated, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11.

88 Ibid.

89 Lawrence, End of Ambition, 129.

90 Rusk to Tuthill, 10 Jan. 1967, Brown, Brown Papers.

91 Rostow to President, 24 Jan. 1967, LBJL, Memos to the President, fol: ‘Walt Rostow, January 15–31, 1967,’ NSF, Box 12.

92 Kubisch to Tuthill, undated, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, National Security File, Box 11.

93 Tuthill to Rusk, 15 May 1967, LBJL, Papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Latin America – Brazil, Country File, NSF, Box 11.

94 Ibid.

95 Ibid.

96 Lawrence, End of Ambition, 138.

97 Tuthill to Rusk, 24 Oct. 1967, Brown, Brown Papers.

98 Victoria Langland, Speaking of Flowers: Student Movements and the Making and Remembering of 1968 in Military Brazil (Durham: Duke University Press, 2013), 127.

99 Lawrence, End of Ambition, 138.

100 John D. Tuthill, interview by Henry B. Ryan, 11 March 1992, The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mss/mfdip/2004/2004tut02/2004tut02.pdf.

101 Juracy Magalhães II, interview by CPDOC FG, Rio de Janeiro, 24 March 1980, tape 6a. https://www18.fgv.br/CPDOC/acervo/historia-oral/entrevista-biografica/juracy-magalhaes-ii [June 30, 2023].

102 Lawrence, End of Ambition, 135.

103 Brazilian Cabinet to Ministry of External Affairs, March 22, 1968, AMRE-B, 600.(85i) – Sitação Politíca – Vietnam do Sul – ano de 1968, Caixa 219.

104 Magalhães Pinto to Brazil’s Embassy in Saigon, 19 April, 1968, AMRE-B, Saigon, 01, Officios, 1967/69.

105 Letter From [U.S. President] Nixon to [Brazilian President] Médici, 14 July 1973, FRUS 1969–1976, E-11, Part 2, Documents on South America, 1973–1976, doc. 89, 252–3.

106 Manoel Pio Corrêa, O mundo em que eu vivi (Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura, 1995), 823–46.

107 Juracy Magalhães II, interview by CPDOC FGV, Rio de Janeiro, March 24, 1980, tape 6a. https://www18.fgv.br/CPDOC/acervo/historia-oral/entrevista-biografica/juracy-magalhaes-ii [accessed June 30, 2023].

108 John D. Tuthill, interview by Henry B. Ryan, 11 March 1992, The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mss/mfdip/2004/2004tut02/2004tut02.pdf.

109 Department of State to All Consular Posts, 7 August 1969, Brown, Brown Papers.

110 Lawrence, End of Ambition, 129.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryan A. Musto

Ryan A. Musto is the Director of Forums and Research Initiatives with the Global Research Institute (GRI) at William & Mary. He holds a PhD in history from The George Washington University, dual-master’s degrees in international and world history from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, and a BA (hons.) in history from New York University. Ryan has held postdoctoral fellowships with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is currently writing a book on the international history of nuclear weapon free zones.