Message to President Goulart Requesting Postponement of a Scheduled Visit to Brazil.

[Released October 26, 1962. Dated October 24, 1962]

Dear Mr. President,'

In view of the disappointment Mrs. Kennedy and I experienced last July in having to postpone our visit to Brazil, we have been especially anxious that nothing should again require us to defer the pleasure of visiting for the first time your great country and becoming acquainted with its people. Unfortunately, the recent challenge to the peace and security of this hemisphere posed by the Soviet offensive military buildup in Cuba requires my presence in the United States and compels me to request your concurrence in a postponement once again of our visit to Brazil. If you agree, I suggest that we consult after the first of the coming year to agree upon the new date on which Mrs. Kennedy and I would visit Brazil.

Mrs. Kennedy and I are looking forward particularly to visiting Brazil because of the long-standing friendship and cooperation between the governments and peoples of our two countries in the pursuit of peace and a happier world society. I also recall with pleasure, Mr. President, the personal friendship established with you during your visit to the United States last April, and I am anxious to renew and deepen our personal relations.

I should like to take advantage of this occasion to congratulate the people of Brazil on your recent elections which I have followed with great interest. The peaceful and orderly process by which some fifteen million Brazilian voters went to the polls on October 7 to choose their legislators and state executives was to me a demonstration of the strength and vitality of democratic government in your country.

With best wishes,

JOHN F. KENNEDY

[H. E. Joao Belchior Goulart, President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro]