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Dominican Republic Civil War and United States Intervention, 1965
The coup effectively negated the 1962 elections by
installing
a civilian junta, known as the Triumvirate, dominated by
the UCN.
The initial head of the Triumvirate, Emilio de los Santos,
resigned on December 23 and was replaced by Donald Reid
Cabral.
The Triumvirate never succeeded in establishing its
authority
over competing conservative factions both inside and
outside the
military; it also never convinced the majority of the
population
of its legitimacy. The widespread dissatisfaction with
Reid and
his government, coupled with lingering loyalties to Bosch,
produced a revolution in April 1965.
The vanguard of the 1965 revolution, the
perredeistas
(members of the PRD) and other supporters of Bosch, called
themselves Constitutionalists (a reference to their
support for
the 1963 constitution). The movement counted some junior
military
officers among its ranks. A combination of reformist
military and
aroused civilian combatants took to the streets on April
24,
seized the National Palace, and installed Rafael Molina
Ureña as
provisional president. The revolution took on the
dimensions of a
civil war when conservative military forces, led by army
general
Elías Wessín y Wessín, struck back against the
Constitutionalists
on April 25. These conservative forces called themselves
Loyalists. Despite tank assaults and bombing runs by
Loyalist
forces, however, the Constitutionalists held their
positions in
the capital; they appeared poised to branch out and to
secure
control of the entire country.
On April 28, the United States intervened in the civil
war.
President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered in forces that
eventually
totaled 20,000, to secure Santo Domingo and to restore
order.
Johnson had acted in the stated belief that the
Constitutionalists were dominated by communists and that
they
therefore could not be allowed to come to power. The
intervention
was subsequently granted some measure of hemispheric
approval by
the creation of an OAS-sponsored peace force, which
supplemented
the United States military presence in the republic. An
initial
interim government was headed by Trujillo assassin Imbert;
Héctor
García Godoy assumed a provisional presidency on September
3,
1965. Violent skirmishes between Loyalists and
Constitutionalists
went on sporadically as, once again, elections were
organized.
Data as of December 1989
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