By Which People?

Events surrounding the signing of the Washington-imposed Dominican “Act of Reconciliation” symbolized, in History’s usual way, the political meaning of what had happened. 1) The “loyalist” (anti-Communist, military-sup- ported, center-right) Junta of Antonio Imbert Barrera refused to sign the Act, and dissolved. 2) The “constitutionalist” (leftist, Communist – allied) or “rebel” chief, Colonel Francisco Caamaño Deñó, signed Burnham cheerfully, and went back to the Old City to take part in a “victory celebration.” 3) Hector García-Godoy, Foreign Minister in the incompetent, leftist, Communist-coddling government of Juan Bosch, was made head of a provisional government. 4) Gen. Eliás Wessin y Wessin (hardline anti-Communist, who with his elite Armed Forces Training Center unit had held out against leftist takeover, and had been the critical military link with U. S. forces when they first arrived) denounced the Act, and was forced by U. S. soldiers to leave the country. 5) Col. Caamaño stayed. 6) Day after day went by without the turning in of rebel arms which, by the provisions of the Act, was to have taken place immediately. 7) García-Godoy appointed as his Attorney General Ramón Morel, whom Time rightly describes as “a far-leftist lawyer.” 8) “Planeloads of [leftist] exiles,” to quote Time again, “were streaming back to Santo Domingo.”

An NR correspondent, reporting from Santo Domingo last spring (NR, June 15), wrote: “History will define the U. S. intervention as an epic struggle between Washington’s Softs and Hards. There is now only one remaining obstacle to the victory of the Softs: their policy is so out of touch with local realities that it may simply evaporate. . . .” The “local realities” were overcome by the more potent realities of Washington. And in Washington the Softs, for whom the U. S. military intervention had been a temporarily demoralizing defeat, reformed their lines and mounted a drawn-out campaign of attrition which the “Act of Reconciliation” carries just short of victory.

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James Burnham

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Events surrounding the signing of the Washington-imposed Dominican “Act of Reconciliation” symbolized, in History’s usual way, the political meaning of what had happened. 1) The “loyalist” (anti-Communist, military-sup- ported, center-right) Junta of Antonio Imbert Barrera refused to sign the Act, and dissolved. 2) The “constitutionalist” (leftist, Communist – allied) or “rebel” chief, Colonel Francisco Caamaño Deñó, signed Burnham cheerfully, and went back to the Old City to take part in a “victory celebration.” 3) Hector García-Godoy, Foreign Minister in the incompetent, leftist, Communist-coddling government of Juan Bosch, was made head of a provisional government. 4) Gen. Eliás Wessin y Wessin (hardline anti-Communist, who with his elite Armed Forces Training Center unit had held out against leftist takeover, and had been the critical military link with U. S. forces when they first arrived) denounced the Act, and was forced by U. S. soldiers to leave the country. 5) Col. Caamaño stayed. 6) Day after day went by without the turning in of rebel arms which, by the provisions of the Act, was to have taken place immediately. 7) García-Godoy appointed as his Attorney General Ramón Morel, whom Time rightly describes as “a far-leftist lawyer.” 8) “Planeloads of [leftist] exiles,” to quote Time again, “were streaming back to Santo Domingo.”

An NR correspondent, reporting from Santo Domingo last spring (NR, June 15), wrote: “History will define the U. S. intervention as an epic struggle between Washington’s Softs and Hards. There is now only one remaining obstacle to the victory of the Softs: their policy is so out of touch with local realities that it may simply evaporate. . . .” The “local realities” were overcome by the more potent realities of Washington. And in Washington the Softs, for whom the U. S. military intervention had been a temporarily demoralizing defeat, reformed their lines and mounted a drawn-out campaign of attrition which the “Act of Reconciliation” carries just short of victory.