REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority State Letter Whz by ML, NARS Cate 2458 spatch No. 218, May 5, 1948.
San José, Costa Rica.
American Embassy, CONFIDENTIAL Page observed that he left an armed bodyguard with a machine gun in the anteroom of the Embassy residence, a second guard also armed on the entry stairs, and a third guard only a short distance away at the Embassy gate. MoreOVAT there were additional guards in the two cars in which he came to the Embassy. However, these manifestations af armed force were in all probability necessary under present circumstances.
On the other hand, when he called upon me Figueres was dressed in civilian clothes, as he has been on the several oocasions when he has made public appearances since his entry into San José, especially for those events which were not purely of a military character. believe that he could do away with some of the oppo sition to the proposed interim government if he should not call it a junta. which unfortunately has a military connotation in the minds of a large part of the public. To call his government a Provisional Government would probably alleviate this feeling, at least to a certain extent. Actually believe that the persons who express fear or dislike of a military regime will in faot find that the government to be installed on May will have only certain superficial manifestations of the military since, from the evidence thus far available, it will be in essence a group of young cirilians imbued with undoubted high ideals for the reform of the political and soonomic life of the country. It it quite possible that many of those who now express fear of a military regime would prefer the fairly wellknown course of such a regime to the social experiment which is the general idea of the Figueres group.
Respectfully yours, Nathaniel Davis Enolosure: Memorandum of Conversation.
800 AIDonovan: ovm (Copies to Central America Missions. to CONFIDENTIAL