43. Editorial Note
Beginning with a May 1, 1965, memorandum to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Director of the United States Information Agency (USIA) Carl Rowan began sending regular reports on press reaction in Latin America, the United States, and other countries around the world to the situation in the Dominican Republic and the actions of the United States, especially the deployment of troops. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Latin America—Dominican Republic, Box 49, Dominican Republic USIA Psychological Situation Reports, 5/65) On May 2, Rowan also started providing the White House with daily memoranda detailing the measures that USIA was taking “to explain and win support for United States actions and policies in the Dominican Republic.” (Ibid.) These measures included not only the placement of a USIA team (see Document 42) in Santo Domingo, but also steady VOA commentary supporting United States policy, the production of leaflets and posters for distribution through the country, and, most important according to Rowan’s memoranda, the establishment of local radio stations to counter the messaging from rebel-controlled Radio Santo Domingo. This reporting continued throughout May.
In a May 4 report, for example, Rowan noted USIA success, but also challenges: “We have just received solid evidence of the effectiveness of our psychological operation in Santo Domingo, but part of that evidence constitutes a thorny political problem. I have just received word from Hewson Ryan that the leader of the rebels complained to the OAS [Organization of American States] Commission about our [Page 126] leaflet drops and loud-speaker broadcasts and demanded that they be stopped.” He continued: “The 5,000-watt medium wave transmitter was delivered” and “this will increase our audience in the Santo Domingo area by more than 50 per cent.” This station, Rowan added, “will carry VOA programs and other psychological materials prepared in Santo Domingo, of course.” (Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Latin America—Dominican Republic, Box 49, Dominican Republic USIA Psychological Situation Reports, 5/65) As for the rebels, Rowan in a second update on May 4, stressed: “The rebels continue without an effective radio in the Santo Domingo area. Their “Radio Constitution” continues to broadcast on a series of frequencies, but manages to break through the jamming pattern only infrequently.” (Ibid.)
Later in the month, in a May 18 situation report, Rowan reported: “The battle of the airwaves continues as hot as the battle of bullets in Santo Domingo, but once again the stations controlled by the USIA team are dominant throughout the country.
“The rebels’ output has been reduced to a weak signal, apparently from makeshift facilities, which can be heard only sporadically—and then only in a small area of the Capital.” According to Rowan: “Our mission reports abundant evidence that the stations we control are being listened to closely by Dominicans of all political leanings. Our leaflet, pamphlet and other psychological programs continue at a high level.” (Ibid.)
In his May 29 psychological situation report, Rowan asserted: “USIA is moving ahead smoothly and positively in its plan to put under OAS aegis the information operation presently carried on by USIA/PsyWar Battalion. Dr. Arturo Morales Carrion has arrived in Santo Domingo and is working with Dr. Mora in studying the entire problem of the OAS information operation. This will include assumption of the publication of the75,000 circulation newspaper VOICE OF THE SECURITY ZONE and re-issuing it under the aegis of the OAS. This should happen in the next few days. USIA/PsyWar Battalion will continue to lend technical and professional aid to the OAS on its assumption of the operation.” (Ibid.)
A collection of Rowan’s memoranda on USIA and the Dominican Republic is ibid.