POWER - AND THE TICKING OF THE CLOCK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100090060-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 5, 1999
• Sequence Number: 60
• Publication Date: May 10, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

U.S. Marines in Santo Domiigo: The origins are economics, history, human pride, and passion
Power-and the Ticking of the Clock
T en thousand miles separate South
Vietnam. from Santo Domingo, but
the U.S. combat troops who marched
into the bullet-scarred Dominican capital
last week did 'so in the performance of
precisely the same political mission that
sends U.S. Marines at Da Nang out on
patrol against the Viet Cong guerrillas.
That mission is the exercise, wise and
correct, hopefully, of the enormous
U.S. power to protect its own security
and what it conceives to be that of its
friends, allies, and the common interest.
Time has yet .to prove the decision to
use this power in the Dominican Re-
public wrong or right. But events them
selves march apace with the ticking. of
the clock. Decisions must be made, or
not made-and the refusal, or failure,
to make a decision is, inexorably, a de-
cision itself.
In this instance, President Johnson first
sent in 556 Marines "in order to protect
American lives . . . [and] nationals of
other countries." Then, as evidence of
Communist control and manipulation of
the revolt increased, Mr. Johnson de-
cided to make clear his determination 'to
prevent a Communist take-over. He
weighed the inevitable wrath and re-
sentment of other Latin American na-
tions against the embarrassment (or
worse) of another Castro in the Carib-
bean-and clearly decided that the first
would be the lesser of two evils.
Throughout the week, Moscow and
Peking bitterly denounced the U.S.
move into Santo Domingo, but their
stricture had a ring more of formality
than of threat. The Latin American "re
action, when it Uen-
35
May 10, 1965
sharp nor so broad as expected. Had bloody revolt in the Dominican Repub-
the lesson of Cuba finally got home? lie, the proud but chaotic little nation
There seemed little question but that (population 4 million) that occupies the
the President's decision to intervene in eastern half of the island of Hispaniola.
the Dominican Republic-like the earlier In the four years since assassins freed
decision to fight in Vietnam, of which it the Dominican Republic of the tyranny
is a corollary-will come in for sharp and of dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, the
heated comment from his critics at government in Santo Domingo has
home. They include influential intellec- known one free election, eight different
tuals (NEWSWEEK, May 3) who have governments, and at least half a dozen
recently been arguing that the U.S. is assorted coups and countercoups.
trying to be all-powerful everywhere Last week's revolt got off to a falter-
at once, and that it cannot "play police- ing start, but before it was over more
man to the world." The record of U.S. than 2,000 Dominicans had been killed
power exercises since World War II, , or wounded, and U.S. Marines and
however, seems to contradict this con- Army troops had been landed in a Latin
tention. In Greece, Berlin, Korea, and American ? nation for the first time in
Lebanon, the U.S. has used its power three decades.
with wisdom and restraint-in the com- The Rebels Act: The revolt began,
mon . interest - of its own and its allies' shortly before 3 p.m. on a quiet Satur-
security, and thus far with a reasonable day, when eighteen soldiers and civil-
measure of success. In. the process, four ians, led by nominal supporters of
U.S. Presidents-Truman, Eisenhower; exiled President Juan Bosch, stormed
Kennedy, and Johnson-have used their Radio Santo Domingo in the heart of the
awesome power of ? decision to under- capital. They promised the overthrow of
score the abiding truth of Balzac's the military-backed triumvirate headed
.phrase, said of marriage, but no less by Donald Reid Cabral, the return from
true of politics: "Power is not revealed Puerto Rico of Bosch, and -urged Do-
by striking hard ? or often, but by minicans to turn out in the streets and
striking true." demonstrate. Simultaneously, the rebels
seized two government arms depots out-
here is no foreseeable end ' to the side Santo Domingo and began dis-
I Chronic turmoil that besets much of tributing arms and ammunition to their
the Caribbean. Economics, history, and immediate supporters.
human pride and passion will see to The first call to revolt brought little
that. There is also no foreseeable end response. Dominicans had been through
to the responsibility the U.S. must bear it all before, or so they thought at the
there. Cuba saw to that. time. A few hours later they hear Radio
It was these political realities that ! Santo Domingo announce that the sta-
prompted the U.S. to move swiftly and tion had been retaken, and the rebels
I .
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der or die." And that seeme
d to be a.
--b-
But it wasn't. At dawn the next day,
a detachment of rebels stormed the Na-
tional Palace, overpowered the guards,
and ousted Reid. The rebels retook the
radio station and announced that the ex-
President of the Congress' would be
Chief of State pending Bosch's return
from Puerto Rico. "We want," said Col.
Francisco Caamano Deno,' a rebel leader
and a confidant of many Dominican and
Cuban Communists, "to return to the
people what was taken from the peo-
ple." In Puerto Rico, white-haired ex-
President Bosch did his best to rise to
the occasion. He would return, he said,
"within the hour."
By now, the rebels totaled about
1,000 men, mostly soldiers like Caamano.
Not all the Dominican military units
were willing to join in. But scores of
pro-Bosch partisans, finally convinced
that the revolt was in earnest, and hun-
dreds of youthful hooligans, known lo-
cally as "tigers," joined the rebel forces.
Arms were passed freely to all comers.
They poured out into the streets of
the capital, shooting at random, looting,
and occasionally pausing to link arms
with bands of citizens and shout,
"Viva Bosch!"
Counterattack: Almost from the out-
set, the rebels were opposed by the navy
and air force and, more important, by
Gen. Elias Wessin y Wessin. The burly,
black-browed son of a Lebanese immi-
grant, Wessin y Wessin had helped
overthrow Bosch, in the first place (in
1963) because he was convinced that
Bosch's well-meaning but lackluster lib-
eralism was setting the country up for a
Communist take-over.
The air force began strafing rebel
positions intermittently Sunday after-
noon. One prime target: the two-lane
Duarte Bridge over the Ozama River.
Rebel soldiers at the bridge fired back
at the planes; some used mirrors to
try to blind the attar l ing pilots by re-
flecting the bright tropical sun into their
eyes. Now, at his military center at the
sprawling San Isidro army base 20 miles
east of Santo Domingo, General Wessin
y Wessin prepared his infantry and ar-
mor for the attack on the rebels' ground
positions within the city. There, anarchy
was in full cry, and slowly the dead be-
gan to pile up at the city's morgues and
hospitals.
In Washington, the progress of the
coup was watched closely from the first
day. The State Department's Dominican
desk telephoned U.S. Ambassador W.
Tapley Bennett, who had arrived in the
capital for consultations only two days
before. Tap Bennett, an incisive, quietly
brilliant Georgian, had been recalled to
discuss the Dominican Republic's wors-
ening economic and political situation.,
Bennett returned to Santo Domingo, ar-
Just after 2 o'clock last Friday morn-
ing, some 2,500 infantry paratroopers of
the 82nd Airborne Division of Fort
Bragg, N.C., began disembarking at
Gen. Elias Wessin. y Wessin's headquar-
ters at San Isidro, 20 miles outside
Santo Domingo. At 8 that morning,
NEWSWEEK Associate Editor John Barnes
approached San Isidro in a single-
engine red-and-white Piper Cherokee
from San Juan, Puerto Rico. His on-
scene report:
The air-base control tower wouldn't
give us permission to land, but the pilot,
former U.S. Air Force jet pilot John. A.
stomach bulbs out over his bet. He
wore a crucifix over his sweaty army
fatigue shirt and he had a bust of John
F. Kennedy on his desk.
There is not a doubt in the general's
mind that the revolt was started by
Communist army officers. "It used to be
that our soldiers shouted `Viva ]a pat-
rial' " he said. "Now, those who went
with [rebel chief] Col. Francisco Caa-
mano shout 'Viva Fidell' But with the
help of the. American troops who are
releasing our own men for fighting, we
can end this soon." After the fighting is
over, Wessin y Wessin said, "we will
make a date for elections." Whatever
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Open city: Machine guns on the roofs, snipers in the bougainvillea
Franciscus of t. Louis, put down on the
strip anyway, in the middle of eighteen
U.S. transport planes. The base was
teeming with American troops, hundreds
of them guarding the airstrip with anti-
tank guns, mortars, and bazookas.
An armed guard of Dominicans imme-
diately took me to Air Force Col. Pedro
Bartolome Benoit, the small, retiring
nominal head of . the new governing
junta. "The fighting isn't going as well as
I would wish," he confessed, "but it is
improving. The rebels still hold 3 square
miles in downtown Santo Domingo." He
predicted that the fighting would only
end "when the city has been recaptured
house by house."
In his command-post office nearby on
the base, Gen. Wessin y Wessin blearily
announced as I entered that he had not
slept since the revolt began six days
before. He is ashort, pudgy man whose
the date, he added, "my opinion is that.
Juan Bosch can never return."
From San Isidro to the center of town,
the road was guarded by U.S. and
Dominican troops. Along the banks of
the muddy Ozama, where rebels fought
the government tanks, I counted 60
bodies rotting in the hot sun. The center
of the city, securely in rebel hands, is a
human fortress of men, women, and
children armed with weapons (includ-
ing tanks) taken from the main Domini-
can ammunition dump. Windows in the
center of town are boarded up, and
makeshift barricades block the streets.
On the river nearby, overlooking the
port, stands the Ozama Fortress, origi-
nally a police stronghold; just before I
arrived the rebels stormed and captured
it. A few police escaped by jumping the
ramparts and swimming across the river;
;those who surrendered were butchered
i
36 Newsweek
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on the spot. In Santo Domingo, gunfire
rattled incessantly.
At San Carlos Church, beyond the
U.S. Embassy, six priests are being held
as hostages; the rebels have mounted
machine guns on the roof. An escaping
priest reported that the bodies of three
Dominican Air Force men hang in Inde-i{
pendence Park, labeled with "traitor"
placards. They happened to be on leave
when the revolt started, and the rebels
strung them up. There are stories of
firing-squad executions by rebel bands
who shouted the Castro slogan "Al
paredoiil" (to the wall) and triumph-
antly bore the head of at least one vic-
tim through the streets. Looting appears
to have been extremely widespread.
Friendly Rebels: The rebels don't,
deny these and other atrocity stories;
they are particularly friendly to Ameri-
can reporters and urge us to "tell them
we are not Communists." One rebel,in-
sisted: "We are, people fighting against
Wessin y Wessin, who has killed many
of us and deprived us of food and
water." Artisans, shopkeepers, well-
dressed professional people including
lawyers and doctors are fighting along-
side soldiers and the mobs in what they
-and Bosch-call "the constitutional
forces." Always before, city mobs have
easily been cowed by. police. But the
other day, when armed rebels faced the
cascos blancos-white-helmeted riot po-
lice, trained in Los Angeles-several hun-,
dred police were reported massacred.
On Friday afternoon, I followed an
armed personnel carrier and tank convoy
of U.S. Marines as they fanned out from
their polo-grounds beachhead beside
the Embajador Hotel to carve out an
International Zone for refugees [map].
As we moved cautiously into a quiet
residential suburb with neat, bright-
colored homes surrounded by flower
gardens, rebel snipers suddenly opened
fire from laurel trees and housetops.
The Marines returned the fire. They
are eager to finish the job, and probed
far into the center of the city., One
of them was killed with a bullet
through his. chest as he stepped around
a corner.
Cease-Fire: Later, as I arrived in
front of the sprawling white.U.S. Em-
bassy, a Marine nonchalantly strolled out
from behind a blood-red flowered bou-
gainvillea bush, spat on a finger, and an-
nounced: "Chalk up another sniper."
Marines have taken up key positions on
the roof; rifle fire is continuous around
the embassy. Nearby I met the Papal
Nuncio, Msgr. Emanuele Clarizio, just
after he negotiated the cease-fire which
began officially at 5:45 p.m. Friday. A
tall, distinguished 'man in white vest-
ments, he was talking with a rebel cap-
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May 10, 1965
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tain and a captain from the junta forces
in the middle of the street, and was full
of hope that the fighting would soon stop.
Several hundred American and for-
eign refugees with children and crying
babies spent Friday night in the lobby
of the Embajador, sleeping on floor and
benches and being fed - U.S. Army K
rations by Peace Corps workers. There
is no electricity and little water. The
shooting echoed through last night, and
now (Saturday) the embassy is still un-
der intermittent attack from snipers. Am-
bassador Bennett says Colonel Caamano's
brother Fausto admits rebel forces no
longer control many bands of fighters.
But the cease-fire is not being honored
by either side and it looks at the week-
end as if junta chief Benoit will indeed
only recapture the center of the city
"home by h_use" and r ull , by, bullet.
Associated Press
Refugee zone: Evacuees. wait
i=nr Qnln~cn
b ssy there came under fire for the first
ti e. At first, in Washington as in Santo
mingo, the reading was that the re-
v It would be short-lived, and that Gen-
e 1 Wessin y Wesshi's forces would
c rry the field in a matter of hours.
Enter the Navy: He didn't. On
onday, Wessin y Wessin tried to send
h tanks across the Duarte Bridge, and
as repulsed twice. From offshore, the
ti y Dominican Navy supported the gen-
e al's attacks with shells and flares. At
t e U.S. Embassy, Bennett and his staff
p epared for the evacuation of as many
o the 2,000 U.S. citizens in Santo
omingo as wished to leave.
By now Washington's crisis machinery
as in full gear. President Johnson had
b en notified of the revolt almost as soon
a it began. In the U.S. Navy's Pentagon
an room, the maps and charts on Viet-
n m were moved to one side, and the
aps on the Caribbean and the Domini-
c n Republic rolled to the center of the
s age. Throughout the day, the President
et with State, CIA, and Pentagon offi-
c als. By Monday nightfall, Ambassador
nnett had advised the President he
anted to evacuate Americans, and the
a rcraft carrier U.S.S. Boxer hove to off
t e Dominican port of Haina, 8 miles
f om Santo Domingo.
On Tuesday morning, Tap Bennett
i sued the evacuation order in Santo Do-
Ingo. "We were given twenty minutes'
tice," said New York Attorney Charles
arroll. "We could take one suitcase.
verything else had to be left behind.
t 5:30 a.m., there were 1,000 Ameri-
ns in the lobby of the Embajador
otel. Then a group of Dominican civil-
i ns drove up. They shouted, 'Everyone
I e up against the wall.' Then they be-
n firing machine guns. I hit the dirt
ong with everyone else." But no one
as hurt. The Dominicans were firing at
t eir opponents on the hotel's roof. Am-
assador Bennett, meanwhile, had man-
ed to arrange a temporary cease-fire,
d by that afternoon some 1,100 Amer
i ans had been evacuated by launch
ad helicopter to the Boxer.
Across the Bridge: The fighting
r ged unabated. Wessin y Wessin's
oops finally forced the Duarte Bridge,
nd fought into the center of the capital.
osch's deputy fled the National Palace
r the Colombian Embassy, but ,rebel
rces fought on, entrenching them-
Ives in Ciudad Nueva, a low-cost
ublic housing project downtown. By
ightfall, unofficial reports placed the
ominican dead at more than 400.
Wednesday was the day of decision
in Santo Domingo and in Washington.
hile the fighting continued, Wessin y
Tessin swore in a new military junta
eaded by Air Force Col. Pedro
artolome Benoit. The U.S. Embassy
vacuated 200 more Americans, and
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surance that U.S. lives and property
(total investments of $110 million,
chiefly by Alcoa, the Southern Puerto
Rico Sugar Corp., and United Fruit)
would be protected. But the new junta
could promise nothing.; That afternoon,
Tap Bennett got on the ? telephone to
Washington to recommend that the Ma-
rines be sent in. "Even while the Am-
bassador was talking," .an Embassy aide
recalled later, "small-arms fire came in,
shattering the windows, and the Ambas-
sador was yelling, `Duck, or you'll get
your heads cut off by the glassl"'
President Johnson had already de-
cided to follow his ambassador's rec-
ommendation. Though the fog of war
prevented any definitive attempts at
classifying all the rebels who fought on
-the pro-Bosch officers by now ., had
sought asylum-both Defense Secretary
McNamara and the CIA's new boss, :
Adm. William F. Raborn Jr., believed
there was clear danger that the Co4n-
munists were ascendant. Some OAS am-
bassadors heard reports from their
embassies in Santo Domingo that Castro-
style uniforms were being worn by rebel.
leaders. At 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, Presi-
dent Johnson went on national television
to announce. his decision to send the
Boxer's contingent of 556 Marines in to
protect the lives of U.S. and other for-
eign nationals.
Rape and Pillage: Throughout the
next day LBJ conferred constantly. An
emergency session of the Organization
of American States met at the Pan
American Union'and ultimately sent in a
five-nation peace mission. From Santo
Domingo, snippets of intelligence trickled
to Washington; leaders of three Com-.
munist factions were identified among
the leaders of the rebel street fighters.
The beleaguered city was now without
water or electricity. There were reports
of rape, pillage, and mass executions.
The dead lay in the streets.
That afternoon, a State Department
briefing for reporters was postponed, put
.Off repeatedly into the night, then can-
celed at 3:15 a.m. Soon after 2 a.m.
Friday, the White House announced
that 2,500 combat troops of the U.S.
82nd Airborne division had been landed
in the Dominican Republic. Friday night,
Mr. Johnson went on television again.
"There are signs," the President said,
"that people trained outside the Domini-
can Republic are seeking to gain control.
Thus the legitimate aspirations of the
Dominican people ... are threatened
. Loss of time may mean that it is
too late . "
But in Santo Domingo, the rebels
fought on. At a conference held be-
tween Wessin y Wessin's troops and the
rebels, Papal Nuncio Msgr. Emanuele
Clarizio and. Ambassador Bennett finally
obtained agreement on a cease-fire. But
the agreement San I#izo'eaAppio
it was broken, apparently by both
s. U.S. casualties stood at four
five killed and nearly two score
nded as the week ended.
ut the President was determined to
g peace to the Caribbean at any
. As estimates of rebel fighting
ngth rose to 15,000, U.S. units moved
on the attack; the' Pentagon sent in
0 more U.S. troops and set up an
d. That put total military strength
he taut little island at some 10,000,
almost one-third of the number of
ericans already committed to Vietnam.
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