converts the right of individual and collective self-defense, as recognized in the United Nations Charter, into an obligation under this treaty. The provision for immediate assistance is applicable to all cases of armed attack taking place within the territory of an American state or anywhere within the region delimited in article 4. This region embraces the American Continents and Greenland, adjacent waters, and polar regions immediately to the north and south of the American continents.

Regardless of where the armed attack may take place, the parties are obligated to consult immediately with one another to agree upon appropriate collective measures.

The Conference decided that no attempt should be made to define aggression in general terms, but two recognized types of aggression are specified in article 9.

In the event of an aggression which is not an armed attack or in the event of the occurrence of other possible dangers to the peace, the parties similarly obligate themselves in article 6 to consult to determine the measures to be taken to aid the victim of the aggression or to restore peace and security.

The recommendation in the Act of Chapultepec with respect to the measures which might be taken to meet threats to inter-American peace and security or acts of aggression against any American state is restated in article 8 of the treaty as follows:

For the purposes of this Treaty, the measures on which the Organ of Consultation may agree will comprise one or more of the following: recall of chiefs of diplomatic missions; breaking of diplomatic relations; breaking of consular relations; partial or complete interruption of economic relations or of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and radio-telephonic or radio-telegraphic communications; and use of armed force.

Article 7 provides that in the event of a conflict between two or more American states, the initial collective action to be taken by the parties shall be to call upon the contending States to suspend hostilities and restore the situation to the status quo ante bellum.

It is provided in article 20 that decisions which require the application of the measures specified in article 8 shall be binding upon all the signatory states which have ratified the treaty, with the sole exception that no state shall be required to use armed force without its consent. In article 17 it is provided that the Organ of Consultation shall take its decisions by a vote of two-thirds of the signatory states which have ratified the treaty. This arrangement, whereby the measures specified in article 8, with the one exception, become obligatory for all parties upon a two-thirds vote of the states parties to the treaty, represents a signficant advance in international relations.

Article 22 provides that the treaty shall come into effect between the states which ratify it as soon as the ratifications of two-thirds of the signatory states have been deposited. Article 23 contains additional protocolary provisions relating to signature and ratification.

Article 24 determines the procedure for the registration of the treaty, when it has entered into force, with the Secretariat of the United Nations. Such registration is to be effected through the Pan American Union.

Article 25 provides that the treaty shall remain in force indefinitely but that any state party thereto may denounce it by a notification in writing to the Pan American Union, such denunciation to become effective for that state 2 years from the date of the receipt of such notification by the Pan American Union.

Article 26, the final article, provides that the principles and fundamental provisions of the treaty shall be incorporated in the Organic Pact of the Inter-American System. This has reference to an instrument in the nature of a basic constitution or charter for the reorganization of the System which it is contemplated will be considered and adopted at the forthcoming Ninth International Conference of American States to be held at Bogota, Colombia, early in 1948.

This treaty represents a significant advance in international cooperation for the maintenance of peace and security. Its provisions commit the other parties promptly to assist the United States in the event of an armed attack by any country on our territory or anywhere in the region defined by the treaty, and the United States similarly pledges its assistance to the other parties in case any of them is subjected to such an attack. In determining collective measures, the parties guarantee in advance to observe important decisions reached by two-thirds of them, reserving for their individual consent among the listed measures only the vital decision as to their participation in the use of armed force. The obligatory character of decisions by a two-thirds majority assures that the general collective will of the community can be made effective, and avoids the possibility that the operation of the treaty might be paralyzed through the nonconcurrence of a small minority.

The vital spirit of Pan American solidarity is implicit in the provisions of the treaty and there is every reason to believe that the treaty affords an adequate guaranty of the peace and security of this hemisphere, thereby assuring so far as possible a necessary condition to the continued advancement of the economic, political, and social ideals of the peoples of the American states.

Respectfully submitted.

ROBERT A. LOVETT.

3. REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, DECEMBER 5, 1947 (Excerpts)'

The Committee on Foreign Relations, having had under consideration the inter-American treaty of reciprocal assistance, signed at Rio de Janeiro on September 2, 1947, unanimously report the treaty favorably and recommend that the Senate advise and consent to its ratification.

1 S. Exec. Rept. No. 11, 80th Cong., 1st sess.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE TREATY

The inter-American treaty of reciprocal assistance is designed to put into permanent treaty form, within the framework of the United Nations Charter, the basic principles embodied in the Act of Chapultepec. The treaty would accomplish the following: (1) It imposes an obligation on the contracting parties to take positive action to assist in meeting an armed attack against any American state; (2) it provides for consultation and action, not only in the event of armed attacks and other acts of aggression but whenever any other fact or situation might endanger the peace of the Americas; (3) it outlines the machinery and organs of consultation which the American states will utilize in taking collective measures to meet such threats; (4) it defines a special hemispheric security area; (5) it enumerates the political, economic, and military measures which may be taken against an aggressor; and (6) it provides for the effective integration of inter-American peace machinery into the United Nations.

COMMITTEE HEARINGS

On December 4 the committee met with representatives of the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to examine in detail the provisions of the treaty. The principal witnesses were the Honorable Norman Armour, Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and Lt. Gen. M. B. Ridgway, Chairman of the Inter-American Defense Board and representative of the Army, Military Staff Committee, United States Mission to the United Nations. Other representatives of the State Department were John C. Dreier, Chief, Division of Special Inter-American Affairs; William Sanders, Associate Chief, Division of International Organization Affairs; and Ward P. Allen, Division of International Organization Affairs. [Assistant] Secretary Armour presented an over-all summary of the treaty, pointing out in particular the obligations of the signatory powers in the event of an armed attack or an act of aggression. His opening statement to the committee is attached as appendix 3 to this report.1 General Ridgway discussed the strategic aspects of the treaty, cluding the hemisphere defense area outlined in article 4, and the sanctions system contemplated in the agreement. The committee noted that no opposition to the treaty had been registered and considered that public hearings, under the circumstances, were not neces

sary.

NEGOTIATION OF THE TREATY

in

Building upon previous inter-American agreements for consultation in matters of common concern, the American Republics, at the InterAmerican Conference on Problems of War and Peace held in Mexico City in March 1945, approved a declaration known as the Act of Chapultepec, which provided that an attack by any state against an American state should be considered as an act of aggression against

2

'Not reprinted here.

'TIAS 1543 (60 Stat. 1831); A Decade of American Foreign Policy, pp. 414-417.

the others; and that whenever such acts or threats of aggression occurred, the signatories would consult in order to agree on measures to be taken, including the possible use of armed force.

This act was a temporary, wartime declaration not designed for legislative ratification, and although its framers had in mind the Dumbarton Oaks proposals for an international organization, the act was concluded prior to the time when the adoption of the Charter of the United Nations set the permitted pattern for regional security arrangements.

Consequently, in accordance with a recommendation in the act itself, the American Republics convoked the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security held near Petropolis in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from August 15 to September 2, 1947, to translate the principles of the Act of Chapultepec into permanent treaty form. The Conference was attended by over 250 delegates and advisers from 20 American Republics, the delegations of 16 of which were headed by their Foreign Ministers. The United States delegation was headed by the Secretary of State, Gen. George C. Marshall, and included the following five delegates: Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, President of the Senate of the United States and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; Senator Tom Connally, ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate of the United States; Representative Sol Bloom, ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives of the United States; Ambassador Warren R. Austin, United States representative to the United Nations; and Ambassador William D. Pawley, United States Ambassador to Brazil. The delegates were assisted by Mr. Norman Armour, Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and others. In a little over 2 weeks the Conference reached complete agreement on the precise terms of a treaty. The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assist ance now presented for the consideration of the Senate is the result of their efforts.

MAJOR PROVISIONS OF THE TREATY

The principal provisions of the treaty may be briefly summarized as follows:

The high contracting parties obligate themselves to refrain from the use or threat of force in their international relations in any manner inconsistent with the United Nations Charter or the treaty. They pledge themselves to seek to settle all disputes by peaceful means.

In the event of an armed attack by any state against the territory of any American state, wherever that territory may be located, or an armed attack directed against any American state within a broadly defined geographic area, all the other parties are obligated to come to the immediate assistance of the attacked state and, in addition,

1 Proposals of Oct. 7, 1944; Postwar Foreign Policy Preparation, 1939-1945 (Department of State publication 3580; 1949), pp. 611-619.

are obligated immediately to consult in order to agree upon collective

measures.

In the event of any other aggression affecting the sovereignty or political independence of an American state or in the event of any other fact or situation that might endanger the peace of America, the parties are obligated immediately to consult to agree upon measures which must be taken to assist the victim of aggression and those which should be taken for the common defense.

In any of the above cases, the collective measures to be agreed upon are: The recall of chiefs of diplomatic missions, the severance of diplomatic and consular relations, the partial or complete interruption of economic relations or of transportation and communication facilities, and the use of armed force. If the attack takes the form of a conflict between two or more American states, the first collective measure to be taken is to call upon the parties to cease hostilities and restore matters to the status quo ante bellum.

Decisions taken in the consultation require a vote of two-thirds of the ratifying states, and decisions to take any of the measures enumerated above will be binding upon all the parties, except that no state shall be required to use armed force without its consent.

A meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the ratifying states will be the normal mechanism through which the consultations will take place and the decisions reached, but the Governing Board of the Pan American Union, in continuous session in Washington, may be utilized as a provisional organ of consultation to save time in urgent cases until the Foreign Ministers' meeting can be convoked.

The treaty constitutes a regional arrangement within the framework of the United Nations Charter to deal with those security matters which are appropriate for regional action. Action taken under it to meet an armed attack will continue only until the Security Council of the United Nations has taken the measures necessary to maintain or restore peace. Moreover, for any enforcement action under the treaty to meet aggression other than an armed attack, the authorization of the Security Council will be obtained. None of the provisions of the treaty impairs the rights or obligations of the parties under the United Nations Charter.

The treaty is open for signature by all American states and will come into force when ratified by two-thirds of the signatories. It may be denounced by any party, and the denunciation will become effective at the expiration of 2 years.

RENUNCIATION OF FORCE AND OBLIGATION TO SETTLE DISPUTES PEACEFULLY

In numerous treaties and agreements concluded in the past the 21 American Republics have denounced the use of force in international relations and have underlined their support of the fundamental principle that disputes between nations should be settled by peaceful means. Articles 1 and 2 of the present treaty, therefore, very properly reaffirm at the outset several of the basic obligations which appear in the