I was there in '65
same as El Jefe. I haven't actually given much thought to those confusing and tragic days in some time. Interesting to note the differing opinions from people and "historians" who weren't there.
In 1965 the Dominican Republic was governed by a 3-headed president; a triumvirate. The chairman was Donald Reid Cabral, an intelligent and interesting man with whom I conversed several times prior to the revolution.
My perspective is necessarily different from El Jefe's as I was up in San Francisco de Macor?s at the time. Rebel troops captured the power plants and radio stations in the capital first thing. There was non-stop military music with a spattering of announcements promising the return of Juan Bosch who was (I think) in Puerto Rico at the time.
As others have said, there were battle rifles everywhere. At one point a couple of 2 ton cattle trucks arrived at the town square in SFM and, after a brief revolutionist speech, rifles were freely given to all who wanted them. I remember US DC3's slowly circling over the palm trees and dropping leaflets with anti-communist messages.
There were checkpoints and roadblocks at
all entrances and exits of
all towns in the republic. They would make you get out of the car, search you, look in the trunk, etc. and ask for ID. Then you proceed through town. Upon leaving town they repeated the searches.
Many of these checkpoint searches were conducted by rag-tag groups that often included boys of 14 or 15 years old. Those were the scariest moments to me. A shaking 14 year old with quivering fingers wrapped around a perfectly lethal battle rifle pointed at me.
There was no effect in SFM when the Marines landed at the capital, some folks actually cheered. OAS became the official peace-keeping force as previously stated, but none has mentioned that OAS also tried to stabilize the economy by making government payrolls, etc.
Most of these OAS teams were composed of US citizens; all were unarmed except for the MP's who guarded the payrolls (all were paid in cash, since banking was "iffy" during that period). A couple of the team members were bilingual, others were career diplomats.
Since I couldn't perform my job during that time, I served as a guide and interpreter for these payroll details. We went to all the small towns, barrios, etc, and paid the teachers and government employees in an attempt to prevent total economic collapse.
The food distribution system pretty much shut down. There was some food hoarding by the wealthier citizens. Other OAS member countries sent food donations which we tried to distribute as fairly as possible. And I have the scars to prove it!
I got up very early one morning (probably the only time I arose at 4am) and left to accompany a semi tractor trailer down to the capital to pick a load of donated food stuffs. Powdered milk, flour, rice, etc. Well the rebel forces chose that day to attack SFM.
After capturing the power station and the emisora, the rebel forces were finally engaged by the Dominican Army and small firefights broke out all over the city. Other Americans in SFM decided that it was no longer safe to stay in town. My roommate hired a publico to transport the six of them down to the capital.
Partway down to the capital their jeep rounded a curve and were hit head-on by a Dominican Army jeep. 2 of my American friends were killed; all were severely injured except for my roommate. Not a scratch!
Believe it or not, there really was partipation from OAS members other than the US, both militarily and with humanitarian aid. Mexico and Brazil come to mind.
It was an unsettling period in Dominican history. Everything was pretty much over by the summer of '65, though I
do recall an incident in December (?) at the Hotel Matum in Santiago. "Unknown" forces attacked the Matum by firing 105mm recoilless rifles, etc. Probable targets were family members of one of the revolutionaries who was killed in battle.
Now I have a headache.
Swede
