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From Argentina: Tall, tailored Victoria Ocampo, whose great-grandfather came to the U.S. in 1818 to get arms to fight the Spaniards, calls herself a "South American potted cactus." She is, however, much more orchidaceous than cactaceous. Rich and Paris-educated, she is Argentina's acknowledged "Queen of Letters," a benevolent if sometimes imperious autocrat of its intellectual life. She foots the bills for the magazine Sur (South), her country's best literary vehicle. In it and in her own prose she strives for a national Argentine literature. Talented 55-year-old Widow Ocampo is a firm friend of the U.S. and an antitotalitarian of considerable influence in Argentina.
From Brazil: Soft-voiced Oswaldo Aranha (pronounced Are-ahn-yah), wartime Minister of Foreign Affairs and chief champion of the Allied cause, believes that the most important international aim for the U.S. is a genuine solidarity with all the Latin American nations.
From Uruguay: Long-faced, able Foreign Minister Eduardo Rodriguez Larreta until mid-1946 advocated Pan-American intervention to overturn Peron's Argentine regime. Then, like many others, he backtracked to seek Argentina's friendship, even if it meant "swallowing Peron, however bitter a pill that is." In Uruguay's politics he holds to the middle of the road.
From the U.S.: Sumner Welles, the professional diplomat who operated the Good Neighbor policy for six years as Under Secretary of State, now is a frequently bitter but always lucid critic of how his successors apply it.
From Italy: Alcide de Gasperi, Prime Minister of the First Italian Republic, learned patience as a mountain climber and in bitter years as a foe of Fascism (he spent many months in Mussolini's jails). For the last year, 65-year-old De Gasperi and his moderate Christian Democratic Party have had a difficult time maintaining their position against extremists of the Left and the Right. A disciple of reform without revolution, he has played for time and has brought his Government through several tight crises. But patience is not a prime virtue of many Italians. Signs of restiveness among Communists and neo-Fascist groups have increased in recent weeks, have caused grave fears of disorders. Disillusionment with De Gasperi and democracy has fed on unemployment, high living costs, food shortages; contributing factors have been UNRRA's failures and the Paris peace terms (which De Gasperi protested as too harsh). De Gasperi's mission to the U.S. is one of urgent pleading for help (in food, trade restoration and political support) to save Italy for democracy.