US Military Intervention in the Dominican Republic
In April 1965, a military coup in the Dominican Republic against the junta that had ousted the elected president Juan Bosch triggered a counter-coup by constitutionalist forces seeking to restore Bosch. President Lyndon Johnson, fearing a 'second Cuba,' ordered 22,000 US troops into the country — the largest US military intervention in Latin America since the 1920s. Johnson publicly justified the intervention on the grounds of protecting American lives, but the primary motivation was preventing what US intelligence assessed as communist infiltration of the constitutionalist movement. The Dominican intervention illustrated how the Cold War Monroe Doctrine operated in practice: any leftist or nationalist political movement in Latin America, no matter how democratically rooted, risked US intervention if Washington perceived communist influence. The Organisation of American States was manoeuvred into providing multilateral cover for what was essentially a unilateral American action. The intervention succeeded in blocking Bosch's return and installed Joaquín Balaguer, who ruled the country for much of the next three decades. The episode deepened Latin American suspicion of US intentions and strengthened anti-American sentiment throughout the region.
- Year: 1965 CE
- Category: Military
