The U.S. Intervention Of The Dominican Republic In 1965

Many international policies of the United States government are marred by conflicts of interest and selfish agendas. The United States has a history of supporting oppressive governments that put down the populace while the dictatorial rulers fatten their own pockets and reside in huge palaces. Then the United States wonders why some countries have negative feelings toward them. What the United States does not seem to understand is that Latin America, especially the Caribbean, are not territories of the United States. So what gives them the right of going into countries to settle disputes? They would be in a justified position to mediate if they were a neutral third party, but they never are.

An example of this is when they intervened in the Dominican Republic in the spring of 1965, to put down an uprising led by local scholars, young military officers and a movement that was embraced by the populace. The US did not intervene until the civil war was about to be won by the rebels, which demonstrates which side they were on and that they did not expect this outcome to come about. Moreover, they believed that the civil war would end up in a communist revolution and that Fidel Castro was somehow orchestrating this rebellion from Cuba. Another reason why the US probably intervened is for the successful continuation of trade and business with the Dominican Republic. They attempted to use their influence to help elect an official who they felt resembled a non-threatening, democratic, pro United States, head of state. Last, they wanted to show that they would intervene in other countries if the happenings in that country were not to their liking. At that time, (during the Dominican Civil War) there was escalating violence in Vietnam, so the Dominican crisis was a platform that allowed them to show that the US would intervene in the affairs of another country if they believed they felt the need to. Therefore, I believe that the US intervened to protect it's own interest and maintain control of politics in the Western Hemisphere. The Dominican Republic had a dictator that the United States felt they controlled to a certain degree. But when the Dominican dictator Trujillo died, the United States was worried because they thought a communist would come to power and would pose a threat to the continental U.S.

The Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo was assassinated on May 30, 1961 and with his death went 30 years of one of the most oppressive governments in Latin American history. That's not the way that the United States government would analyze that event. They would probably state that with his death went 30 years of economic and political stability. It's this flawed thinking: capitalism, democracy & US interests first, needs and wants of the other country second. That is exactly what makes the United States despised by "common" everyday citizens of other countries around the world. There is even evidence that the United States government actually backed Trujillo's oppressive regime: in the words of former President of the United States F.D.R, "He may be an S.O.B., but at least he's our S.O.B" (Slater 6). This demonstrates that the United States would rather back a dictator than let the people have their own form of government just because it might not be in the best interest of the United States government.

Another President that publicly favored a dictatorial regime for the Dominican Republic was President Kennedy. After the death of Trujillo, President Kennedy stated this about the future prospects of the Dominican Republic: "There are three possibilities in descending order of preference, a decent democratic regime, a continuation of the Trujillo regime or a Castro regime. We ought to aim for the first, but we really can't renounce the second until we are sure we can avoid the third" (Gomez 5). In other words, he said that they would have like the Dominican Republic to be democratic but they would have allowed the oppressive Trujillo regime to continue if they believed a communist takeover was unavoidable.

The Dominican people got the chance to vote for a President with the assistance of the United States. The people elected Juan Bosch he was a "Professor of political science in Costa Rica and Puerto Rico" (Slater 11). He received almost no aid money from the United States unlike the millions of dollars given to Trujillo. So it was obvious that the United States did not like Bosch probably because his ideals were not in accord with that of the government of the United States. Bosch made many enemies with people in the military especially after he legalized the communist party. Some members in the military had enough, but there would be no intervention by the U.S because like I've said they favored oppressive regimes. So the democratically elected government of the Dominican Republic fell and the United States would do nothing to stop it.

A group of dissident military men led by Colonel Elias Wessin y Wessin, commander of they key Armed forces training centers, on September 25, 1963, deposed Bosch's administration. According to Cascon Case, "The replacement of Bosch's elected government prompted young military officers to rally to Bosch's PRD party. In late1964, in the Rio Piedras Pact, they vowed to restore the constitutional President" (Cascom Case DOM: Dominican Republic 1965-66). Juan Bosch went into exile in Puerto Rico and a military junta ruled the country. Donald Reid Cabral emerged as the head of the junta, but according to Gomez, he "faced many of the challenges that Bosch encountered and would eventually suffer a similar fate"(Gomez, 9). If was apparent that Reid's government was ineffective and that Dominican disenchantment with it's government was growing exponentially. The Dominican political scene began to split in different directions; the U.S and some of the military personnel backed Reid. Most of the senior military officials supported Balaguer and the political leftist groups and young military officers wanted the reinstation of Bosch as President. All of these elements would amount to another coup of an existing Dominican government. Unlike the coup by the military junta, this would be bloody and take the lives of many Dominicans.

"Fighting broke out in the Dominican Republic on Saturday, 24 April"(Navy Historical Center). A group of young colonels, some of them part of the P.R.D seized and imprisoned the Army Chief of staff and declared themselves in revolt against the government. The rebel faction labeled themselves the "Constitunalist"; they were made of PRD members on young military officers and were led by General Fransico Caamano. The group supporting Reid called themselves the "Loyalist" which consisted