REPORTING TAKING SIDES IN SANTO DOMINGO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67B00446R000500100005-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 27, 2003
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: May 28, 1965
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

MAY 2 8 1965 ?
ggravated by one thing or another, r many editorialists and columnists sided Irreconcilable factions together. '
most of the 160-man press corps has ' with the men in the field. Said the New No Child's Play. Through it all, U.S.
THE PRESS
0
time helping the wounded to hospitals. Wary of Claims. Back in the U.S., play in an effort to bring seemingly,
A 11
een given out, it has often been wrong. ton Post: "Innumerable conversations aids of trying to diagnose the feelings
When reporters have taken to the have strongly indicated overwhelming of a? massively illiterate nation. Oddly
streets for their stories, they have been popular support for the rebel regime and. enough, in this topsy-turvy world, the
shot at by snipers, have hitched rides a corresponding anti-American senti- very deftness with which Dominicans
with hysterical drivers while bullets ment arising''from U.S. antagonism to-' can switch sides may prove to be a
whizzed past. They spend much of their ward that regime." strong card that the Americans can
uncooperative; when information has Wrote Dan Kurzman of the Washing- reporter has been impressed by the haz-i
U
REPORTING Los Angeles Timesman Ruben Salazar
interviewed a rebel accused by the State
Taking Sides in Santo Domingo Department of being a Communist:
Covering the war in the Dominican "Florentino doesn't look dangerous. He's
Republic has been a battle in itself. Re- slight of build and sports a thin mus-
porters have found U.S. officials, both tache. I went away wishing we had done
military and civilian, closemouthed and something to win him to our side.
->. ttonahipbd.,.. .?,,...~,tl a aua..-.
'Chancellar of the-city UnivM'a1tY? dart of the people of out' city."
? The East Side Conareaamart blamed part He mid that dealing with the toots of
Approved For Release 2003/11/04: CIA-RDP67B00446R000500100005-1
Government spokesmen were baffled
tnimuah eh I dud process of law. ' ?? ? ; by the antagonism of the press. Some
it wan Rep. IJndaay'a brat is . reporters seemed determined to be-
77. come policymakers. The Trib's Collier'
complained to U.S. officials that ma-
rives were allowed to shoot back when
? . ` shot at from outside the'. internation-
al zone. "He got quite upset," says;
one. "He refused to understand that'
this is not child's play and that, our.
} men must protect themselves." Both'
Collier and Szulc reported last week'
that U.S. troops were helping the toy
alists fight the rebels in northern San-
to Domingo, but no other reporters
an et' confirmed this story, and many flatly
even contradicted it, The New York Times
Me
ran an Air Force picture purportedly.
,
ief
showing U.S. troops aiding the junta
PUCT . last week by arresting rebels. Actually,
naa the photo was taken two weeks ago in
ehe- the international zone, where rebels
Ii, were being rounded up for suspected
~r a 'sniping. The Trib ran a similarly
slanted photo of a marine firing his
nerae mount-.bpi ,abi.phbu
neutral, Brie it a aniper,
NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE COVERAGE
Time to be wary of confident diagnoses.
soured on the U.S. position and flocked
to rebel headquarters, where people
seemed anxious to make their case to
reporters. Predisposed to side with the
underdog against a Latin American mil-
itary junta and against U.S. military
intervention, many of the correspond-
ents wrote glowing accounts of their
s fleeting interviews with the rebels.
Cabled the New York Herald Tribune's
Barnard Collier: "The U.S. action was
meant to thwart internationally trained
Communists who are fighting alongside
the leftist rebels. Its effect has been to
ive th
C
i
g
e
ommun
st world a rallying
eDl cry, to create dozens of Dominican Com-
munist martyrs and to turn an increas.
ing number of rebels against the U.S."
Said New York Timesman Tad Szulc:
"The U.S. finds itself identified with a
military junta that is widely hated, and
it may be standing o'1 t~ic~,,
violent showdown v tli fliil
lar rebel movement.
i-t
for defending himself (see cut).
`t Among the trump cards in the U.S.'
York Times: "Little awareness has been.
shown by the U.S. that the Dominican
people-not just a handful of Commu-
nists-were fighting and dying for so-,
cial justice and constitutionalism." Even
Walter Lippmann, who had supported
the U.S. intervention, hoped for the suc-
cess of what he called the "legitimatist
party-that of the Constitutionalists.
But the fact is that Colonel Francisco.
Caamano Deno, boss of the so-called
Constitutionalists, had helped over-
throw the constitutional President, Juan
Bosch, in 1963. And the Bosch con-
stitution that Caamano was supposed-
ly supporting forbids any military man
-Caamano, for example-to hold
office. . Communist takeover. Many reports
Not all reporters, to be sure, were t question the extent of Communist in-
happy with the rebels. Warned the Her filtration. Yet. to my knowledge- none
Fs P 6F R aWf`'v~~`~/ /F) #ur1AaRD4o6 0446RdMWi#i~80s45t+~nts haver taken
ig y popu- t e re a command, but they maintain the trouble to examine, the findings of
.. - only tenu
- .. .
l ,.
_ll t
?__'__
tL
ver
hei
ti
ous contro
OAS
forces. Rebel strongpoints, particularly
in the southeast section of Santo Do-
mingo, are manned by Communists'
with only token allegiance to Caama-'
no." And after spending a week in
Santo Domingo, Newsday's Marguerite,
Higgins filed another minority report:)
"Be wary of all those claims of wide-
spread support for the rebel Consti-'
Government's hand is a devastating re
port of five OAS. ambassadors that
backs up U.S. contention that Com-,
munists played a substantial part in the.
revolution. Yet when the report was,
.first issued on May 8, not a single U.S.,
paper picked it up. Next day Ellsworth
Bunker, U.S. Ambassador to the OAS,;
held an hour-long press briefing on the
report, but even that was given scant
play in the press.
Finally, Alaska's . Senator Ernest
Gruening, one of the most vocal critics
of Administration policy in Viet Nam,
delivered a furious speech in the Sen-
ate: "Unhappily, the U.S. press has
been gravely derelict in reporting what
has transpired in the OAS with regard
to the Dominican crisis. Commentators
express doubts regarding the wisdom
of expanding our mission to prevent a
 STAT Approved For Release 2003/11/04: CIA-RDP67B00446R000500100005-1
Approved For Release 2003/11/04: CIA-RDP67B00446R000500100005-1