LBJ sent 23K troops to Domincan Republic in 1965

cawacko

cawacko

Well-known member
Totally random, was googling Robert Caro looking for an update on when his final book on LBJ might be finished and came across this in an article. I'm not posting this to make a political point or start a debate rather just curious if anyone here is/was familiar with this action?




Caro still working away on fifth LBJ book, no pub date set

For the yet untitled Volume 5, the 87-year-old Caro hopes to write about the Vietnam War’s impact on a Vietnamese village and still plans to travel to Vietnam, a trip that has been postponed because of the pandemic. He has already worked on a less talked about moment in the Johnson presidency, when he sent more than 20,000 troops to the Dominican Republic in 1965 to prevent a feared communist takeover.

“I tell people he sent 23,000 Marines to the Dominican Republic and they say ‘What?’ No one remembers it,” Caro says.



https://apnews.com/article/robert-caro-lbj-60e2a56d90e96caaf001862e49e3c673
 
cawacko said:
Totally random, was googling Robert Caro looking for an update on when his final book on LBJ might be finished and came across this in an article. I'm not posting this to make a political point or start a debate rather just curious if anyone here is/was familiar with this action?




Caro still working away on fifth LBJ book, no pub date set

For the yet untitled Volume 5, the 87-year-old Caro hopes to write about the Vietnam War’s impact on a Vietnamese village and still plans to travel to Vietnam, a trip that has been postponed because of the pandemic. He has already worked on a less talked about moment in the Johnson presidency, when he sent more than 20,000 troops to the Dominican Republic in 1965 to prevent a feared communist takeover.

“I tell people he sent 23,000 Marines to the Dominican Republic and they say ‘What?’ No one remembers it,” Caro says.



https://apnews.com/article/robert-caro-lbj-60e2a56d90e96caaf001862e49e3c673
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Of course you dont want a debate, because of how soon we would get to Ukraine and Americas lies/hypocrisy.
 
cawacko said:
Totally random, was googling Robert Caro looking for an update on when his final book on LBJ might be finished and came across this in an article. I'm not posting this to make a political point or start a debate rather just curious if anyone here is/was familiar with this action?
Click to expand...

I remember it. The U. S. feared a communist government supported by Castro would take control.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Of course you dont want a debate, because of how soon we would get to Ukraine and Americas lies/hypocrisy.
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If you want to debate our action in 1965 in the Dominican Republic, have at it. Far be it from me to stop you. But your response had nothing to do with the question. Caro said no one remembers the action. I'm asking if anyone here does.
 
cawacko said:
If you want to debate our action in 1965 in the Dominican Republic, have at it. Far be it from me to stop you. But your response had nothing to do with the question. Caro said no one remembers the action. I'm asking if anyone here does.
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I do not require any permissions from you.
 
cawacko said:
Totally random, was googling Robert Caro looking for an update on when his final book on LBJ might be finished and came across this in an article. I'm not posting this to make a political point or start a debate rather just curious if anyone here is/was familiar with this action?
Click to expand...
Yes, I can give you some insight. Back in that day, the US was very "anti-communist" to a certain irrational extent. We were referring to the Soviet Union as "Commies" when they were a socialist republic. Americans still don't know the difference between socialism and communism, but suffice to say that the US was aligning itself with strong (even brutal) socialist regimes that vowed to "stamp out" communism. Panama and the Dominican Republic were two examples.

This was stupid, of course, because all socialist regimes are going to profess to "stamp out communism" because communists are their arch-enemies. Communists are also relatively harmless. If they were to ever seize control of a country, it would quickly dissolve into anarchy, not communism. This is why there are no communist countries today.

That said, the US aligned itself with the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. In 1961, he was assassinated, and chaos ensued (the successor was not socialist, the military had a coup, non-socialist forces attacked the military government) and LBJ feared that without a socialist government in charge, it might become another Cuba, which was socialist but he thought was communist. LBJ sent in the troops to "restore order" ... but he actually installed a non-military government.
 
I don't remember it, I would have been about 14. LBJ was somehow the forgotten president. I never ever hear his name mentioned.

He was unique because he was one the last of the Conservative Democrats and there was a lot of history during his time in office.

Mostly good, but some bad and ugly as well. It was a time when America was sick of the Vietnam War but we couldn't get the military complex out of it.

And LBJ was right in the middle of the fight being attacked from both the DOVES AND THE HAWKS. He couldn't win. He was damned if he did or damned if he didn't, regarding the Vietnam war.

But, anyway, if you have 5 minutes, WIKIPEDIA has a lot of history packed in there for LBJ. And it is all Damn Interesting stuff.

And, I did not see any mention of the Dominion Republic and the troops on Wikipedia.
 
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cawacko said:
If you want to debate our action in 1965 in the Dominican Republic, have at it. Far be it from me to stop you. But your response had nothing to do with the question. Caro said no one remembers the action. I'm asking if anyone here does.
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I was thirteen.......I only remember finding out what girls were all about......
 
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