THE DOMINICAN CRISIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400440010-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 17, 1998
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: June 21, 1965
• Content Type: OPEN

HuTdnmsoii) was granted permission to-,]v
extend his remarks at this point in the
Racona and to include extraneous mat-
. :., ._-.
Mr. LAIRD. - Mr. Speaker, in a series
of recent newspaper columns, the noted
Jv Columnist Ralph de Toledano explored.,ij
In depth the events and circumstance
'that led up to the crisis in the Dominlcarq;~~
r Y. Republic. A
So that'my colleagues may have
opportunity to read the entire. ana>y
4
yin one package, I ask under, unanhn
MIN
? consent that the articles by. Mr. dr ' 1 '
'? '? TolOdano be inserted in the Rccoiw at "t
J f :"' this point. t:;
IFrom King Features Syndicate,-Inc.,
May.1, 19051 .. .aa~
Txs Rsrus STOUT OF Trig DOMINICAN Cnram-I =(
(By Ralph do Toledano) ci
~.' Very reluctantly, the pr has begun tot
recognize that the crisis in the Dominican..U,
Republic in Castro-Communist in inspiration., ?
and leadership. Even the flat declaration bb7~
President Lyndon Johnson that -the Vnite+d`.
States had to move in order. to prevent a ?7 i +
re
etttlon o; the Cub
t
d h
b
'~ '^c
p
a
rage
as
een met
,. 1
by knowing smirks on the part of d few press
pundits here.
The true story of the Dominican revolt, the;- \
steps that led to it, and the background of' :
ignorance and perfidy which set the stage ,,_Io
remains , untold From unimpeachable
idifed In this account I have pieced to-
th
i
ga
er th
sfrightening story It in being set
.. down here because public knowledge may ti
strengthen the President's hand and prevent :. '
another Cuba-type deception on the Ameri-,?
can people.
Point No. 1 in this sordid tale is 'the.
tact ttuf the II-it-1 St
t
s
a
e
Inches of repeating the same terrible mIs- 1
takes which led to the installation of a Cam- .' r'
monist regime 9o miles from the Amen
C&n
ti F~ r;Y,~ 1;. h
coast
This account begins with the overthrow of
the Trujillo dictatorship, in the Dominican
Republic and the eventual election of Dr.
Juan Bosch to the presidency. From the
start of Dr. Bosch's political ascendancy, the
same groupings within the State Department.:',
which had suppressed Fidel Castro's Com-
muniat and terrorist 'past insisted that the ~?~
Dominican politician;. though a leftwinger,`
was enti.Communlat. This $rgtmmant wasr
. ? Used when there were protest over the > s'
esp
ousai 'bt thu bosoh ithe .i
Moody adWlnbtr 1iJcd and De~e1? a*
>e7ell ~ {':''r~i ~ 101VF N k r NJ l t+:lat , :
FOfAb3b
FI
r..
'-i
h 4'~
1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release:,: CIA-RDP75-00149ROO040044001O-2
After Juan Bosch became Prepldent, U.S. and economic developmAnt. How the United ' fluence in an increasingly representative
intelligence agencies began to receive omt- States permitted subversive end pro-Com- government.
nous reports... It was determined that Prest- munlet forces to uAe Its owd soil to plot When the revolt broke out, on April 24. the
dent Booch'e right-hand man was a Commit- against a friendly n'e gbbor remains one of Communists and their rfillitary allies passed
nist apparatchlk. Arms were being smug- the unexplained pieces In the Dominican jig- out guns and ammunition to street mobs
gled Into the country from Cuba and die-. saw. and robber gangs. Juvenile delinquents.
tributed to the Communist underground.. That the action was planned In Puerto some as young as 12 and 14, were also given
A special militia was organized under the Rico can hardly be denied. While Donald weapons. From the very start.. the Com-'
head of the junta governing the munlats were In control. The Bosch party..,
l
id C
b
R
,
a
ra
e
direction of Beach's Red lieutenants. And
a pro-Castro guerrilla army began making Dominican Republic, was Improving the hardly protesting Its "democratic". nature,
It of corrupt gen- ? went along.
riddin
nom
l
nd'
i
g
y,
s
a
s eco
raids In the countryside.
For 7 months, prodemocratlo and pro- orals and other officials, and preparing for , From the very start of the tragedy. the de
United States Dominican leaders pleaded . a free election this September, the forces veloping facts were known. At any time, the' with U.S. representatives. They wanted the of subversion were busily plotting their re- revolt might have been nipped In the bud-
Kennedy administration to use Its good. volt. Ousted leftist President Juan Bosch had there been the will to do so among the
olnoee with President Bosch. to warn him was spending large sums In newspaper ads boys of "Foggy Bottom." The Intervention. :
that further submission to the Castroltes and in taped radio broadcasts attacking the by President Johnson came at the 11th hour.
would not be sanctioned by the United Reid Cabral government. Another few days and the Dominican Repub-"
States. To this, the State Department an- In June 1964 Bosch publicly predicted "a Do would have -joined the roster of Amen-.;'
swered that this country could not Interfere. violent revolution from within by those who oa's enemies. Only the u.3. Marines stand:
Dr. Bosch, the middle echelon team told the are not permitted to make a gradual revolu- between us and that eventuality. ?
'-
prow, was simply allowing leftwing parties 'tion." This was the signal for an assault on
'to exercise their civil liberties. the military barracks at Victoria. Explod- IFrom the, King Features Syndicate,
May 10, 11186)
killed 10 people and matured 111
That one of those parties-the June 14 Ing bombs
movement, named after the date on which others.. The attackers fled to the campus of THS DopamzcAr+ 1txvva LIC Arm ' A SUICIDAL
an invading force from Cuba had attempted , a nearby university where they Were given I astfxcr
a landing In Trujillo's state-was led by asylum as students. Seven strikes against (By Ralph de Toledsno).
Castro-trained activists and financed by the Government led by Communist-led labor the
'
Communist Cuba was not made known. groups shook the Government. , The Castro-' . ' r r. Juan an Bosch, sosch, compared U.S. Castroism's . patsy v In ntthe
Finally, a military junta took matters", Ito June 14 Party agitated openly for revo- Caribbean, has ld to the vof
Budapest Dominican
Into Its own hands. To prevent what was lution. The National Students Federation, the
ramcanpaging compared lW to he rape a D of clearly In the works-a Communist take- ' affiliated with Castro's student International, ' Bosch has even harsher words tsay troops. Dr. about over-the junta overthrew the Bosch ro- openly espoused the guerrilla cause. and led. this country and its Government, thuah ut ?
glint on September 28, 1063. The Kennedy bloody strikes against academic authorities, ; s' remarkably gentle when discussing Come .
administration immediately withdrew Its ostensibly In protest against entrance ex- l dictatorships. hens friends ke -
like Dr.
military and foreign aid missions and out ofa aminations which were characterized as sere- munlet kably Jaime Benitez, chancellor of the University
all Alliance for Progredb funds. For 8 Ing the Yankee imperialist oligarchy. of me Benitez, condemn Dr. Bosch for his
months, the new Government, Inheriting the Efforts by the; V.S. Immigration Service to rel~~~ : come out Dr. Bo and rates
shaky finances of Beech's incompetence and block the traffic between Puerto Rico and the. gotleally and reject communism and Castro- ?,
cut off from American help, slid downhill. Dominican Republic were swiftly blocked by IBM."
Simultaneously, the Castroite guerrillas the administration of Gov. Luis Mufioe Yet hearts are bleeding for Jua;- Bosch to-
?. flourished. The State Department's middle Merin. The Central Intelligence Agency.. night among some of the intellectuals.. Not
` echelon appeared unconcerned, but sudden ? aroused by the reports of Its operatives, only are they dragging out the discredited ~-
1 panic at the "White' House led President sought to mobilize some sentiment In Wash- only hoary argument that by opposing discredited new to, the job, to restore American Ington for the Reid Cabral government.. monism we feed the rlghtwing. reactlonarles,
aid. . Whether the matter was taken up by the Na- . but they are feed theg,fn their beer because.
The path ahead for the new junta. led by tlonal Security Council is a question wrapped. , President Johnson has been, to them, fool-.
the Scottish-Dominican Donald Reid Cabral, .ln the enigma of executive privilege. ' !sh enough to believe that "a few dozen Com-
was not an easy one. Juan Bosch, who had Certainly, the State Department's middle munists" Could take over the Bosch revolu-
i fled to Puerto Rico, agitated for his return echelon was aware that Botch's PRD had en- tion. While they weep, Dr. Bosch, In viols-.!
''to power. His agents moved back and forth tered Into a working arrangement with thet1on of Federal law, directs the activities of
between San Juan and Santo Domingo. All Moscow-Communist Popular Socialist Party the Communist Castrolte rebellion by long
pretense at disassociation from the Com- ' (pgp) ? the Peiping-dominated Dominican distance phone from American soll.
munlets was dropped-and Angel Mlelan, a popular Movement (MPD), and the Caetrolte " The argument that only. a "few dozen
leader of Bosch's Dominican Revolutionary . June 14 Party. Angel Mlelan, leading Bosch's
:'Party (PRD), was careless enough to be or- be on ag ?elsl
PRD in this coalition, claimed that his party- been advanced seriously by the New urewwYor
rk
ested on American soil carrying Communist, the largest, would not be run by the others. Times, a ' newspaper whose correspondent,'
documents. But since his allegiance was to the Commu- - Herbert Matthews, sold Washington and the
Quiet requests from Roid Cabral and the '.,nest bloc, his assertions were simply window country on the sterling democracy and ant(
tl
"
e
junta that Juan Bosch be asked to. set
dressing for naive Americans. communism of Fidel Castro. At the time
elsewhere, rather than on an Island so close In the days before the revolt, Intelligence that Castro was being glorified in the Now
to the Dominican Republic, were ignored. sources were aware that a Communist junta. York Times, there were only a handful of :
Charges that Bosch and the PRD were no- had been organized to rule the united front. Communists running .a small revolt in the . '
Lively plotting the overthrow of Reid Cabral ; At the same time, there were stirrings In Sierra Maestra Mountains. A relatlde hand-
were filed and forgotten when It became Puerto Rico which Indicated that Juan Bosch ful of Communists took over the Russian
known that the former Dominican president was preparing a return to the Dominican Re- Revoldtion and destroyed the Kerensky re-
cad the support and protection of Puerto,
public at the head of his allies. gime which Lenin himself had described as i'.
f
[
n
M f1 M
L
ar
a
u u oz-
Rico a eccentric Governor
. The names of the members of the unofficial, the "freest In the world."
At the same time, the Dominican Repub- And from all side. at this critic l ,...;.nwnt " r
meri
d
ta
th
ine
e urn .
.ou ,.- S
assau.. on
Ing slogan which in reality meant readmit- Manuel uonsalez; representing the Soviet, .. sus
tang the Communists of various shades and Communist Party; Carlos Dore, a PSP Com- ley. of opposing communism rather than .. , ~~ .
allegiances who had flourished under Juan.. munlet and activist In the Dominican Stns sheepishly making `accommodations which , ~ c
s Jon
resen
i
ti
ud
t
? .+ o... .. ..
p
en
organ
za
on; ..
It was at this time that the seeds of the cruguu, a,Commuumv st
present Caterolte revolt were planted by Dr.. and Daniel Ozuma,`of the Castrolte June 14 must, the pundits feel, be sapped and weak-",
a campaign of breast-beating and
Activists trained In Cuba and In ened by
Party
.
,
Bosch 'e PRD under the local leadership of:;
Aa el Mlelan In a-TMUaited front" with Cas- Czechoslovakia, where the. International Red . phoney rhetoric. Harry S. Truman, 'who.. FFtt
e in the Korean' 1,'. ~ ..
g r - _ wn..e. Trac
maintains a
e ial we.nw. for tfil. demonst,?eted file coura
y
p
g
From King Features Syndicate, May ~, IOAfI] molested by a government trying hard to ' The mountains of evidence, proving be-
Trrs Rw. STOa! or THS Do>1rrHroAtf prove to Washington that It wp not, : yond a peredv9nture of a doubt that the
repressive. Dominican revolt was Communist Inspired
Carers -ii
the Res junta be- and Communist directed
continue to pile
" " In typical Castro style
,
,
,
(By Ralph do Toledano) gan making alliances with disaffected mills s up. The administration has belatedly Issued + c
American refusal to look communism -In tart' men. These were not hard to And.:`a list 'of nameE aurd & _chronology of the : I ? ` +
Dominican revolt,. This refusal led ?to the rooted out graft. to a armed forces. Amt Irsssonabie men. ,The chronology is too kind:
withdrawal of U.S. support for the' Domini-' . liltlon also played h art among those mill". to, the rebels dneS It oWl insists that the.'
aan fepubllo at a arftial time to Its politlest, tarlr leaders who sew t mnoil ru lasing o. ? am timists loot ens attar t e outbreak' of
?Saniti ed ' Approved, For Releas>r *OOa'49ROOO40044OO:1 O-2
 0
are painted as inconsequential or harmless. As this writer has previously noted, the ?
The "sins" of the anti-Communists become ? Communists In Colombia have used a tech- General Directorate of Intelligence (DOI).
the subject of discussion-as if an ardent nique of kidnaping to raise ' funds and to This agency for espionage and revolution Is
integrationist should Insist that a Soviet terrorize the countryside. These kidnaping$ ? run by a half dozen Soviet specialists, all,
landing in Mississippi should not. be re" have averaged two to three every week. Now trained in the best schools of guerrilla war-.
slated because the State has a bad record; the guerrillas, having built up large caches fare that the Kremlin can afford.
on civil rights. of arms, have begun to distribute them to The DOI, since 1981. has been sending
The issue In the Dominican Republic, and bands of desperados and other Outlaws that agents into Puerto Rico from Cuba. One
1? Vietnam, for that matter, to survival -- , have preyed on the rural population for years. Congressman puts the number at more than,,
and only someone. ready to leap off a bridge, of bandits to aid in creating a ? a thousand, though it Is known that all of
them have not remained on the ,island.
would see it In any other way The use
. revolutionary situation Is standard operating.,
procedure among Communists. The father (There are bigger and better targets In main
of Communist terrorism, a Russian named. land United States, like the Statue of Lib
[May to, 19881
iri . ? - . ,
Caxaxe IN LATIN AMERICA-Tn5. Freer Pxxes Nechayez, laid out the rules in the 19th can- arty.) Many of these ageatb are Puerto
Ricans. who were already in training" ln',
CONTINUes tarp, Lenin developed them, and Stalin Czechoslovakia and In Russia.
to "prove" that the immutable evidence just Rome, and from Rome to Caracas, with
'doesn't exist. Castroites and Communists Italian Communists working the lost stretch. ? Island, much has gone on. Puerto Rlco, for
one has been given high priority by Castro's
circumstances," this would .at least state 4 . a single operation, and can be multiplied Even without this help, the Castro-Com
case. many times In that country and others of monist onslaught on Puerto Rico has been
instead, the issue to completely confused Latin America. The money had traveled. .
by arguments, charges, and claims designed from Moscow to Prague, from Prague to no joke. Though the American press has almost studiously ignored events on the
e
d n
e n
the state of min The proof of that--11 any Bobby Baker I saw you with lest rug
ganized punditry said frankly: "Yee, the Do to light when three couriers were arrested became a spokesman for Senor Bosch, as well
minicab revolt was engineered by Commw in Caracas carrying $330,000 for the use of President Johnson's representative In the,
Mate and would have established another Communist plotterp seeking to assassinate cease-fire negotiations in Santo Domingo..
13 remlln-Peipin g outpost In the Caribbean- President Lconi and-overthrow the legitimate He gave the lndependentfetae a reepectabll
but U.B. intervention is wrong under any ? Government of Venezuela. This sum was for It they had never known.
At the same time, there Is a certaif~ ele- 'treason to Cuba but lavishly support their
meat of Intellectual dlahonety involved In own activities In the political underworld. , sity of Puerto Rico, and a controversial
eeded-came character In his own right-"who was that
r discussion If or- l
d
htT"
Sanitized - Approved For Rela~p nP7 ~Q~Q~ ~~e Haver i
hostilities. But this fact Is belle by the : junta now battIIng'tS b CH IQ YeRDet~endu~-0(-+" '?m~ b
lans
there
are
slee
for a no poi t in belaboring itself, so there is ' not thertoo strongly e should be some kind of Compro- . onslaught-on the soft unde belly of a the
, point boring It.
,Why, then, do grown men continue to min- miss, some deal, to bring the two sides to. United States-should Santo Domingo sue-',
represent or misinterpret known facts? Why gather, This would be catastrophic, for the cumb to the tender mercies of a coalition
do they strive so passionately to prove that rebels could claim a victory, and Communist, government.
this country Is In the wrong when It takes elements, working from within the coalition,. From very reliable sources comes the
I the United
self-evident thatsis asked over and over ' unless subvert iCommunistown ebellion 1s put ? a Commonwealth attached Puerto RICO,
allowed
by is a question leaders
itics, y Americans who not have the continue at the job of reconstructing the' nStates omic bseelf,intere t. J'or many years, ethe
in the ideological steam Reds and a handful of addlepated national- {
baths long Immersion in
oaths of Washington. reaNew Yion. and the Communist Gtimetable overnment "(and' with economy, some minor lute have called for Puerto Rican indopend- '
othe
The r anew areas of been repeatedly offered changes) once. Neither the insular government nor
by such answer has repeae of our urp0- H 67 reliable once more sources he evp - nt out that the man fn the street has had very much
Iltlcal diseases the Bosch rebellion was part o a stepped-up interest. in any such eventuality, but the
esesna se diagnosticians Jammes James Burnham. Long g
before him, Karl Marx had predicted that, campaign against all of Latin American ? Red and, their allies have shouted loudly .
In the destruction of Western society there countries. Thee chief targets, after the Do- for a freedom which would only spell eco- ,,
Lminlcan Republic, are Venezuela, Colombia, nomle calamity and political chaos.
would be considerable help from. well and Guatemala.. According to secret "c, The chances for real trouble on the Island
osmosis u ncons tur who woun nd to by sethe kind ofsupport reports to the Congress, some $10 million began when Fidel Castro made Cuba a Com-ciously ofm st causes. has poured out of Castro Cuba and Into the monist outpost. Infiltration and props-
of Communist chas ,? hands of Communist guerrillas in those ganda began almost simultaneously. The :
it as the Westeru countries and In Panama, Paraguay, El Sal- , movement attained respectability when
Mr. Bf a suic icidal has instinct o among
:llectuals of a au and nd b inessm kind vador, and Peru. former Dominican President Juan Bosch
t
instn which sends the lamming is ' Ten million 'dollars may not seem to be was given asylum in Puerto Rico by Gov.
mariner which sends the lemming r his much in these days of $100 billion budgets. Luis Munoz Mann and immediately abused-
it as the m the maanifefe and station to of a death.masMasive Marx saw s But In Latin America, and' employed for
guerrilla and other subversive activities, it it by using his home as a base for eubver-
as ,
e as a the ingh -Reid is in consort Cabral with government the fn le Reds--.
sense. Both aspects of the problem are per- is a very large sum. It does not Include, v
ceptible In the reaction to the Dominican moreover, other substantial -sums from Mos- aghtnat r ??'? Domingo.. - n ?
crlane. cow and Peiping which not only lend-lease' : Jaime Benitez chancellor of the Unlver
Ii? . (By Ralph de Tolodano) 14- once a bank robber-put them into practice. The American Security Council, which has `
Captured documents and highly secret re- It Is significant that when the Bosch revolt ,' on, these doings, reported re-
pt an eye -
f in the hands of the Central Intelli- broke out, party activists In Santo Domingo ke
ence A encp show very clearly that the cr s ' 'Immediately armed the street gangs. cently on the work of these professional sub
: verelvee:
in the nican Republic was merely the s If the Dominican crisis to brought to a? r r vetro'e DOI Is working In concert with
first on a long Communist timetable for the successful end, with the Communist thor-. Puerto Cat ro D Is and once t with
'takeover of Latin America. , " oughly defeated and discredited, the Moscow- . o CRican ommunists a indenter fac-
President Johnson's energetic, though Peiping-Havana axis will suffer In the rest of _t r o of of the their attacks Independence agai 11th-hour, moves to stop the Communist- Latin America. If It In allowed the smallest movement, accelerating ng th th i attackse gf std
run, attempted coup d'etat of Juan Bosch ` vestige of victory, then the large groups' of the social , the and , a number of Cafth of Castrd-'
Moscow-Peiping-Havana axis. But the crisis ?ng In Cuba-according to CIA reports-will'. supplied
is far from over, even In Santo Domingo. be sent out. New "classes" `]iT'be begun and Gun battles have been fought between the
't'here are small signs disturbing observers ..the tragic, crisis-strewn road.pill become'.. police and Insurrectlonfats. Castro agents
both here and In the Caribbean that the . 'endless. have infiltrated both exile and student
Johnson administration to giving up the high'.; groups, their purpose being to stimulate the
kind of rioting which would require armed
ground gained acting forthrightly-to i?? , lgrpn, King Features Syndicate, May. 78 Intervention ? ? ?. When the (United Na-
the astonishment of the rest of he world. 19861 convenes again,
I
It to no secret here that the State Depart- tIons) General Assembly Aft3sa ails DournicAN R Usls0-PUS1ITo there is little doubt that agitation and propa-
ment'e middle echelon, protesting all along RICO? . ' ganda will be stepped up In New York and
that the Bosch rebel movement was-not (By Ralph de Toledano) Ban Juan, with the possibility of more vlo?
back . In like to
power.see;, The (crew of comer-mice"' are paeeloll-, tent actions erupting In Puerto Rico."
.tthe he Dominican n ex-Pre a s s still ident would
c
Those same groupings within State *blob ? ately at work to bring the Dominican crisifi , Violence on the let nd will be a signal for
gave Fidel Castro his start fought bitterly to-an Inconclusive settlement-tire kind of the' U.N. committee on antlcolonlatbm
to save Senor Bosch *ben he was ailendt- 'result which *111 snatch victory froth those wbloh has already placed a demand for
109 his own people by giving the Communist awe of defeat for the Juan 86eoh cabal and., Puerto- Sloan In?ependenoe an the U.N.
'a free hand in the Dominican Republic. ' Its Oomnflmlst allles.'That to the. news U.'.?agenda, In" violation of the'chaster-to beat
~ s sow ~w~n d lhe,"kends. this Is wHttn, alltlcd~l,ttJeay ehnnrs b",the bribes' M1' American wltbdra ?from as
la.-a .lw .Ya '-1 ~.-. .,.. behin u-Ar..-~.' W '/Y~r lM~1NY1~~1~.?. :.'/". ~.. tit ~~ a....IM ,/. .. .. '..r '~'~.t -.fta 0 A - -. , , S,.
 Sanitized - Approved
United States. The precedent was set in the
Algerian crisis when what was a part of
Metropolitan France received support as a
nation in Its own right.
If the Puerto Rican newspaper, El Munro.
Is correct and some 12,000 puertorlquenos
have received training in Cuba, then the fat
will be in the fire. Only a categorical defeat
of the rebels In Santo Domingo ,can com-.
pletely forestall this probability.
[From King Features Syndicates May 28,'
STOP-AND-Oo DIPLOMACY IS HURTING TIES V.B.
Cause'. .
For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400440010-2
the U.8: created Communist sanctuary in that they were pushing for a full-scale civil
North Vietnam be struck from the air have war, General Wossln offered to set up a mill-1
made many Americans forget that the Ken-. tart' junta with them, It they would agree to ,
reedy policy of go with too little and then free elections within 00 days. The rebels: atop aggravated, the situation in southeast refused.
Asia. Had there been the kind of command' From that point on, the rebellion was'
decisions now being made by the White taken over completely by Communist activ-
House, the guerrilla and regular army opera- lets, Those naive members of Dr. Juan
tions of the Vietcong and the North Viet- Bosch's Dominican Revolutionary Party who,
namese would have been brought. under con- believed that he was interested In restoring a
trol long ago. leftwing democratic regimen took asylum In. 1
The bombing of Communist North Viet- the embassies of other Latin American coun- .
nam has not brought any counter Moves by tries.,.
Red China or the Soviet Union. There Meanwhile, as eyewitnesses have de-
would have been even. less of a flutter had scribed, the Communists began distributing
this country acted when the Vietcong had weapons-some of them Sov t made-to the
not a ghost of a chance. Instead we mud- "turban" or street gangs. I,pting; rape, and
dled About with South Vietnamese policy, Indiscriminate killing became the order of
made and broke governments,-,and showed the day. Communists In control of the radio
that we really didn't know what we wanted station broadcast the names of Cuban ref-
to do. This was wonderful news to the ugees from Castro and urged that they be .
Communists who are now rubbing their- liquidated.
wounds, watching military defeat move In on Oddly enough, the ambitious- and rest-
.father, Denmark was strewn with corpses. them, and foreseeing new and added die- ? tionary General Wessin still had not moved
Lyndon Johnson has always been aware of , culties in their guerrilla onslaught on to crush the rebellion. In fact, the national
this since his days as Senate majority leader.. southeast Asia. police, under the Reid Cabral regime, began
He has followed this rule in the arena of - If the President has gained In experience to free political prisoners, Including Commu-
domestic policy. But In foreign policy, & what he lost In time, then the events of the, Hints, who immediately joined In the blood-
field which is relatively new for him he has ? past years will be a net gain. If he holds,. letting. Finally, there was real counterae-
tended to operate on a stop-and-go basis. to the stop-and-go approach-=one condi- Lion by the government against the! rebels. ?
This has not enhanced his reputation for cau- tioned by the State Department-then this As Paul Bethel, editor of the liberally' slanted
tion and It has complicated the American. country is In for trouble, '.. Free Cuba News, puts It: "By Tuesday night,
position in the world of nations. April 27, the PRO Party of Juan Bosch had
Much of the present trouble in the Domini= , [King Features Syndicate, Inc.,.June 4, 19651 been defeated militarily by the Dominican
can Republic to due to this stop-and-go ap- ASTATS.DEPARTMENT CONTINt1L0 TO WORE FOR armed forces and absorbed politically by Its
proach, from the moment of Intervention, Boson . .. Communist colleagues."
it was clear that there would be a hullabaloo.., (By Ralph do Toledano) It Bosch, making safely defiant apices from
among the more vocal of the homegrown the safety of Puerto Rico, was finished, the
dissenters and by the critics of the United For reasons best known to himself. Secre-. 'rebellion were not. In full co'fitrol of the.
States In Latin America, Europe, and tarY of.State Dean Rusk has gone out of rebellion and working through. their pup-
north, east, south, and west.. It was ab- his way to create the impression that United ?.. pet-the until-then obscure Lieutenant
solutely necessary for President Johnson to States Intervention In the Dominican Re- Colonel Caamano-they had created utter.
order that Intervention. Another Castro- public -was a hasty and unjustified action.. anarchy in Santo Domingo.
Communist state In the Caribbean would Mr. Rusk, of course, knows better-or he has On April 28; a military junta, which had..'
have been a catastrophe. been keeping his head burled in the sand. taken over from Donald Reid Cabral, for-
The President, however, moved uncertain- In a press conference much quoted by manly asked the United States for "temporary
ly. Had he sent the Marines and paratroop- those who would undercut President John ?. Intervention," pleading that it could no
era In to stabilize the situation as quickly that mss, Mr. and Runk stated quite clearly been longer guarantee the safety of Americans and ?
as possible, the shooting match would be . --... ,.,w. o.....,. pam-troopers had .p- ---.n. ,,,.. other foreign residents. As a result of this
' Isom,
than better. An action quickly executed leader, and General Miss Wesaln y Weesln,
o
e
by e r propaganda offensive so that it JURG lion as a reaction to the begun to hart u seriously. The tentative e "reactionary" trolls, rebellion was a demooratie uprising,;
approach has made matters worse poll- . defeated by President Johnson's Fascist ad.,.
rather - clew of Donald Raid Cabral the Dominican
United States have had a chance to build when we moved. be Predicted. ,that In amasser Of weeks mil
n - 'lions of Americans will, believe that the Cas :
th i It has been ne-- t
h 1nt th b
tl
By now, only the diehards would still be onal Security Council by the Central Inn States would take Its thumb out of its mouth
talking. The more practical politicians J)jU'n g-o-~p-p and act like a
would realize that you can't unmake an Intelligence reports that expose. Commu- grownup nation. The rebels
ll back and the omelet; they would be turning to other cam- Met perfidy have, we saw In the case of Cuba, could have mopped upmin atmat terli offorces
days. "
al s of and vilification. ? a tendency to disappear before they reach'
P yelp But President Johnson, beset by the nee
Instead, the administration has acted ten- high level officials. But in the case of the Isolationist and appeasement wings' of his
tatlvely and with an occasional lack of can Dominican Mats, the facts were In the hands'
position. party and a sailed by college professors, began
dor. Troops were landed and wheeled into of both 'Secretary Rusk and President John-
eon for days before the White House ordered to worry,
up, , then were They told to began hathe l alt while necessary
the clean Preol- - intervention. ` Now the Organization of American States .
government
h ta indecisive- In order to make the President's action is trying to create a coalition
sdent seemed
United States show an to be work- seem like a case of shooting from the h which will Include the instigators of the re-
lag. at a a The compromise, s seemed seemed to be and to confuse matters Be tat only the most. bellion and their Communist allies. The -
ng as If this were p~1 s . United Nations Is eke over end
elblo when dealing with Comm unist-domT- devoted scanner factual material can really trying .
nated revolutionary movements. know what went t on before and is. going on make the mere even messsier, and the quick
In this period of backing and filling, the now--a whole mythology has been erected of and healthy solution that was In our grasp ?,
fighting has continued, the situation has What presumably went on -between April 24, seems Impossible of achievement. The myth ;
remained chaotic and the critics of the-.when the actual trouble began, and'Aprll 20,, makers are busily at work and It can almost,
...hang lef ft to s sc c ream abou out. supplied to the State Department and the - - ? - - - - -
ave nothing left to screani about. supplied to the State Department and the
tale would h N
Fora brief time, It looked as if the United
ann some iouci walls, but trio worst of the rain or tree piece.
tumult would now be over. The plain facts are, as follows: on April
The net effect of the President's seeming 24, Reid Cabral had sent his army chief of.
timidity, after taking a courageous step, has staff to fire two officers for graft and cor- i
been to involve us in the Florentine ruption. The chief of staff was instead sr- I
machinations of the Organization of Amen- rested by rebels. General Wessin
Instead Of
,
can States, the United Nations, ? and every moving to crush what was then a small -I
ambitious politician In the pariismente of mutiny, tried to act as mediator between the
Europe. ? ' rebels and Reid Cabral ? The rebels refused,
What is true of the Dominican Republic' - to budge, and General Weesin still held of.f
Is doubly true Of Vietnam. Relief at the ?"We don't want bloodshed," he told Genes:
President's reversal of policy and ' hie t Raid CabisZ. "It would be better If you rea,:>
aoquldsoenoe`to Peatado@ Suggesiloor ~thai 1; rlgnad." s?a alter ibis ca'b~alr br>fd liidloatad ?.'
rule that if it becomes necessary to uo some-
thing unpleasant or unpopular. We best done
quickly, decisively, and gotten over with.
This is a rule that Hamlet never learned.
By the time he had finished with his step-'