Yanks Pocket Santo Rebe

May 3, 1965 - United States forces opened a corridor today through rebel held territory in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic, cutting the city in two.

This move came as the U.S., in effect, acknowledged that it expected to maintain troops in the Dominican Republic for an indefinite time, at least until Dominicans find a “democratic solution” for the civil war, which has raged for the last 10 days.

While advancing early today, the paratroopers had several engagements with the rebels, killing two of them. 

Another U.S. Marine was killed at dawn by a rebel sniper at the northeast corner of the expanded international zone perimeter. He was shot through the head.

This brought to three the number of Marines killed since U.S. troops moved into Santo Domingo last Thursday. A paratrooper died at the San Isidro base this afternoon when a grenade exploded in his hands accidentally. Two other paratroopers were killed previously.

The decision to control the small Caribbean country militarily until a viable government can be established — a task that, under present conditions, may take many months — resulted from the conclusion reached by the Johnson Administration in the last 48 hours that the rebel movement has fallen under the domination of Communist forces.

This, however, is a controversial point. The rebels deny it, and some competent Americans privately take exception to so sweeping a view of the situation.

In the United Nations today, U.S. representative Adlai Stevenson replied to a Soviet charge that the U.S. “armed interference” was a violation of the U.N. Charter by declaring that Moscow was “attempting to exploit the anarchy in the Dominican Republic for its own ends.” 

“This deliberate effort of Havana and Moscow to promote subversion and overthrow governments in flagrant violation of all normal of international conduct,” Stevenson said, “is responsible for much of the unrest in the Caribbean area.”

Nikolai Fedorenko, the Soviet representative, bitterly attacked “American militarism,” which he said played the role of “judge” and “executioner” in the Dominican Republic.

In a reference to racial strife in the U.S., he added that Washington was sheltering behind the “dirty and shameless excuse” of restoring order in the Dominican Republic as if it were “Alabama or Mississippi.”

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s