22. Telephone Conversation Between the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Mann) and President Johnson1
President: What is the report on the Dominican Republic?
Mann: Well, it isnʼt good this morning. We were hoping last night that the Army would be able to get together but they are split. The Wessin group and the Air Force are in one camp; a large part of the Army that is in Santo Domingo, the capital itself, is supporting the rebel government and the loyalties of the troops outside the capital are still uncertain. They have not gone over to the rebels yet and presumably they will split too. The Wessin forces are separated from the center of town by a river which is commanded by the rebels—the bridge over the river—there is only one. The guns controlling the bridge are being strafed by the Air Force and Wessin has not yet tried to move across the bridge with his main troops. Looting is going on in the city and a lot of chaos. They have got about 1400 Marines on board these ships standing offshore. I just asked if we might alert Defense, we might have to airlift in case things got very bad, some people out of the southern part of the U.S. assuming the Marines could get control of.
President: Southern part of the U.S.?
Mann: Well, by air.
President: Repeat the statement.
Mann: Weʼve alerted Defense against the possibility of having to airlift some additional people down in case the 1400 are needed and are not enough. I do not think that there is anything that we can do right now except wait it out. I do not know how it will go. They are not likely to do too much shooting—at least they never have in the past. Either the troops on one side or the other are likely to cave. We heard last night late that they were moving over to Wessinʼs side and it apparently stiffened during the night and early this morning.
[Page 62]President: I went out to see Abe Fortas last night2 just to visit with him on the general picture. He had had a call from a fellow that Bosch lives with or visits down in Puerto Rico and Abe is their lawyer. He said Bosch wanted to know whether he should go back or not. He had about concluded that he could not go back because the fields are closed and it might be dangerous so he was going to stay in Puerto Rico for awhile.
Mann: I donʼt think he could get in right now. I donʼt think anybody can get in right now.
President: What about our Ambassador. Is he cut-off right now?
Mann: Well, he was asked to come up on consultation by the Bureau3 which was worried about the deteriorating situation but they did not expect it to come so soon.
[Omitted here is a 2–minute discussion on the negotiations for a new Panama Canal Treaty.]
President: We are going to have to really set up that government down there, run it and stabilize it some way or another. This Bosch is no good. I was down there.4
Mann: Heʼs no good at all. And the tragedy behind all of this is the price of sugar which you canʼt do much about—even try to raise the price of sugar—without putting Castro firmly in the saddle. They are both sugar economies. I think what we are going to have to do is pour even more money into Santo Domingo to offset this low sugar price right now. This is whatʼs hurting them. And if we donʼt get a decent government in there Mr. President, and we get another Bosch, it is just going to be another sinkhole.
President: Well, thatʼs your problem. Youʼd better figure it out.
[Page 63]Mann: I think we will know in the next 6 to 8 hours how this comes out. If Wessin comes out on top, the man to get back, I think, is Balaguer. He is the one that ran way ahead in the polls.
President: Well, try to do it; try to do it some way.
[Omitted here is discussion of a press report alleging U.S. Government support of the rebels and President Johnsonʼs request of Mann to notify the press to set the record straight.]
- Source: Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts, Recording of telephone conversation between President Johnson and Thomas Mann, Tape F65.10, Side B, PNO 3. No classification marking. This transcript was prepared in the Office of the Historian specifically for this volume. President Johnson placed the call to Mann, which lasted approximately 9 minutes.↩
- On April 25 President and Mrs. Johnson departed the White House at 8:03 p.m. to have dinner at Abe Fortasʼs home. They arrived back at the White House at 9:38 p.m. (Johnson Library, Presidentʼs Daily Diary) Abe Fortas, an attorney to the President, and a trusted friend for over 20 years had wide-reaching and high-level contacts in Puerto Rico, an area in which he had long possessed a strong interest. He offered to assist the President in contacting Juan Bosch, the ousted President of the Dominican Republic who since September 1963 was in exile in Puerto Rico. One of Fortasʼs contacts was Jaime Benitez the Chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico and Boschʼs friend. ( Fortas: The Rise and Ruin of a Supreme Court Justice) From this point on in the crisis Fortas becomes one of President Johnsonʼs most trusted advisers on the Dominican Republic.↩
- See footnote 2, Document 20.↩
- On behalf of then President Kennedy, Vice President Johnson attended the inauguration of President Juan Bosch on February 27, 1963.↩