BRAZIL: White-Glove Visit

In World War II the U.S. and Brazilian navies fought together against Nazi subs and raiders. The U.S. Fourth Fleet operated out of Brazilian harbors; the Brazilian navy, strengthened by the assignment of eight U.S. destroyer-escorts, carried out valuable convoy duties in the South Atlantic.*

Last week, with U.S. warships’ guns again being fired in anger in another part of the world, the two navies made a special point of reaffirming their friendship. In Washington, U.S. Admiral Forrest Sherman, Chief of Naval Operations, welcomed genial Admiral Flavio Figueiredo de Medeiros, 62, chief of staff of Brazil’s navy and Sherman’s guest for a twelve-day visit to the U.S. After meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Louis Johnson and attending some white-glove parties, the Brazilian admiral, who commanded the 1st (Rio) naval district during the latter part of World War II, embarked on a series of trips to ordnance plants, naval schools and submarine bases. “I learn,” explained the admiral after visiting the New York Naval Shipyard. “In spite of my grey hair I am always learning.”

Both Brazilian and U.S. officials insisted that the visit was social; Figueiredo declined to say whether his ships might ever sail for Pacific waters. But a deal was in the works, possibly under the Military Assistance Program, to take a couple of U.S. cruisers out of mothballs and turn them over to the Brazilians for a bargain $8,000,000 price. If the Brazilians could man the ships (now reportedly awaiting recall to active service at the Philadelphia Navy Yard) and learn to handle them quickly, there was a chance that U.S. and Brazilian sailors might go to sea again as comrades in arms.

*Brazilian warships took part in the Normandy landings, helped escort transports carrying the Brazilian Expeditionary Force to the Italian front. Four ships and over 500 men were lost. Many of the casualties were suffered when the cruiser Baia sank in 1945, probably as the result of striking a floating mine.