180. Information Memorandum From the Presidentʼs Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson 1
SUBJECT
- Balaguerʼs First Appointments
Director Hoover has furnished security reports on 35 of Balaguerʼs first appointments.2 These cover the Cabinet and sub-Cabinet, the Supreme Court and some of the key independent agencies such as State Properties, Industrial Development, Immigration, Communications and Airport Administration.
Security-wise the Cabinet looks good. The report on Minister of Interior and Police Ramon Castillo contains references to past pro-Castro sympathies. He is a rather erratic fellow who is now well right of center and working closely with our Embassy in Santo Domingo.
Balaguer made a clean sweep of the Supreme Court. You will recall that under Garcia Godoy some highly undesirable elements got into the judiciary. The FBI has no derogatory information on the new group. The Attorney General is also given a clean bill. We can expect the new Supreme Court to clean house further down the ranks of the judiciary.
The heads of independent agencies, with one exception, present no problems. The Director General of State Properties is said by one source to have been a member of the Communist Party. The charge does not seem to be supported by other sources. Both Garcia Godoy and Balaguer regard him as honest, trustworthy and a capable administrator.
From a security standpoint, the appointments represent quite an improvement from Garcia Godoyʼs choices ten months ago which had us so worried.