Preface

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity of the United States Government. The Historian of the Department of State is charged with the responsibility for the preparation of the Foreign Relations series. The staff of the Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, under the direction of the General Editor, plans, researches, compiles, and edits the volumes in the series. This documentary editing proceeds in full accord with the generally accepted standards of historical scholarship. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg first promulgated official regulations codifying specific standards for the selection and editing of documents for the series on March 26, 1925. These regulations, with minor modifications, guided the series through 1991.

Public Law 102–138, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 established a new statutory charter for the preparation of the series, which was signed by President George Bush on October 28, 1991. Section 198 of P.L. 102–138 added a new Title IV to the Department of Stateʼs Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 USC 4351, et seq.). The statute requires that the Foreign Relations series be a thorough, accurate, and reliable record of major United States foreign policy decisions and significant United States diplomatic activity. The volumes of the series should include all records from all relevant departments and agencies needed to provide comprehensive documentation of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the United States Government. The statute also confirms the editing principles established by Secretary Kellogg: the Foreign Relations series is guided by the principles of historical objectivity and accuracy; records should not be altered or deletions made without indicating in the published text that a deletion has been made; the published record should omit no facts that were of major importance in reaching a decision; and nothing should be omitted for the purposes of concealing a defect in policy. The statute also requires that the Foreign Relations series be published not more than 30 years after the events recorded. The editors are convinced that this volume, which was collected and edited from 1995 to 1997, meets all regulatory, statutory, and scholarly standards of selection and editing.

Structure and Scope of the Foreign Relations Series

This volume is part of a subseries of volumes of the Foreign Relations series that documents the most important issues in the foreign policy of the 5 years (1964–1968) of the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson. [Page IV] The subseries presents in 34 volumes the documentary record of major foreign policy decisions and actions of President Johnsonʼs administration. The editors of the volume sought to include documentation illuminating the foreign policymaking process of the U.S. Government, with emphasis on the highest level at which policy on a particular subject was determined. The documents include memoranda and records of discussions that set forth policy issues and show decisions or actions taken. The emphasis is on the development of U.S. policy and on major aspects and repercussions of its execution rather than on the implementation of policy.

Focus of Research and Principles of Selection for Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, Volume XXXII

This volume documents U.S. policy toward the Dominican Republic including a period of great crisis that culminated in the decision to send U.S. military forces to that country. The United States then oversaw a reconstitution of the Dominican Government and a Dominican presidential election in 1967. Also covered is U.S. policy toward Cuba, essentially an account of U.S. attempts to isolate Castroʼs Cuba both diplomatically and economically through sanctions, and the internal Washington debate over the extent and nature of U.S. covert policy toward the island nation. The remainder of the volume does not cover a broad swath of countries, but concentrates on the two most difficult relationships in the area for the United States: Haiti and the British Colony of British Guiana (after 1966, independent Guyana). In Haiti the problem was essentially the mismanagement of the country and repression of the people by dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier. The main questions for policymakers in Washington were how much business, if any, should the United States do with Duvalier, how they could help the Haitian people without helping the regime, and how much contact and support it should give his opponents, all of whom were in exile. Although part of South America, the English speaking country British Guiana/Guyana has been included in this volume based on the similarities of the issues that the United States faced there. In Guyana, the United States sought to prevent leftist Cheddi Jagan from becoming Prime Minister and instead successfully supported Linden Burnham, his principal opponent.

Lyndon B. Johnson made the major foreign policy decisions during his presidency, and the editors sought to document his role as far as possible. In the case of the intervention in the Dominican Republic, Johnson relied heavily upon the recommendations of his key advisers and special envoys, and their role and advice to the President is documented. It will become obvious that during the Dominican crisis—especially through the transcripts of Presidential tapes—Johnson was a hands-on President who after assessing advice, made the major [Page V] policy decisions. The role of the President and his major foreign policy advisers, including his hard-to-document Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, are less pronounced in the other chapters in the volume dealing with Cuba, Haiti, and British Guiana/Guyana. This volume follows the pattern of other volumes in the 1964–1968 subseries: focusing on policy formulation in Washington. In the case of the Dominican Republic there is a close connection between events in Santo Domingo and policy in Washington.

Editorial Methodology

The documents are presented chronologically according to Washington time. Memoranda of conversation are placed according to the time and date of the conversation, rather than the date the memorandum was drafted.

Editorial treatment of the documents published in the Foreign Relations series follows Office style guidelines, supplemented by guidance from the General Editor and the chief technical editor. The source text is reproduced as exactly as possible, including marginalia or other notations, which are described in the footnotes. Texts are transcribed and printed according to accepted conventions for the publication of historical documents in the limitations of modern typography. The editors have supplied a heading for each document included in the volume. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are retained as found in the source text, except that obvious typographical errors are silently corrected. Other mistakes and omissions are corrected by bracketed insertions: a correction is set in italic type; an addition in roman type. Words or phrases underlined in the source text are printed in italics. Abbreviations and contractions are preserved as found, and a list of abbreviations is included in the front matter of each volume.

Bracketed insertions are also used to indicate omitted text that deals with an unrelated subject (in roman type) or that remains classified after declassification review (in italic type). The amount of material not declassified has been noted by indicating the number of lines or pages that were omitted. Entire documents withheld for declassification purposes have been accounted for and are listed by headings, source notes, and number of pages not declassified in their chronological place. The amount of material omitted from this volume because it was unrelated to the subject of the volume, however, has not been delineated. All brackets that appear in the source text are so identified by footnotes.

The first footnote to each document indicates the documentʼs source, original classification, distribution, and drafting information. This note also provides the background of important documents and policies and indicates whether the President or his major policy advisers read the document. Every effort has been made to determine [Page VI] if a document has been previously published, and, if so, this information has been included in the source footnote.

Editorial notes and additional annotation summarize pertinent material not printed in the volume, indicate the location of additional documentary sources, provide references to important related documents printed in other volumes, describe key events, and provide summaries of and citations to public statements that supplement and elucidate the printed documents. Information derived from memoirs and other first-hand accounts has been used when appropriate to supplement or explicate the official record.

The numbers in the index refer to document numbers rather than to page numbers.

Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation

The Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, established under the Foreign Relations statute, reviews records, advises, and makes recommendations concerning the Foreign Relations series. The Historical Advisory Committee monitors the overall compilation and editorial process of the series and advises on all aspects of the preparation and declassification of the series. Although the Historical Advisory Committee does not attempt to review the contents of individual volumes in the series, it does monitor the overall process and makes recommendations on particular problems that come to its attention.

The Historical Advisory Committee reviewed the sections of this volume on the Dominican Republic and Guyana and advised on declassification issues.

Declassification Review

The Information Response Branch of the Office of Information Programs and Services, Bureau of Administration, Department of State, conducted the declassification review of the documents published in this volume. The review was conducted in accordance with the standards set forth in Executive Order 12958 on Classified National Security Information and applicable laws.

The principle guiding declassification review is to release all information, subject only to the current requirements of national security as embodied in law and regulation. Declassification decisions entailed concurrence of the appropriate geographic and functional bureaus in the Department of State, other concerned agencies of the U.S. Government, and the appropriate foreign governments regarding specific documents of those governments. The declassification review of this volume, which began in 1997 and was completed in 2005, resulted in the decision to withhold 6 documents in full, excise a paragraph [Page VII] or more in 27 documents, and make minor excisions of less than a paragraph in 66 documents.

The Office of the Historian is confident, on the basis of the research conducted in preparing this volume and as a result of the declassification review process described above, that the documentation and editorial notes presented here provide an accurate account of U.S. policy toward the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, and British Guiana/Guyana.

Acknowledgments

The editors wish to acknowledge the assistance of officials at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library of the National Archives and Records Administration, especially Regina Greenwell and Charlaine Burgess, who provided key research assistance and access to the Johnson Presidential tape recordings. The staff of the Johnson Library also worked with the staff of the Office of the Historian to obtain access to the telephone conversations of Thomas Mann. The editors also wish to acknowledge the assistance of historians at the Central Intelligence Agency, especially Gerald Haines and Scott Koch, who facilitated access to the records of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Carolyn Yee, Daniel Lawler, and Edward C. Keefer collected documentation. Carolyn Yee selected, annotated, and edited the chapter on the Dominican Republic and Daniel Lawler produced the chapters on Cuba, Haiti, and Guyana. They worked under the supervision of Edward C. Keefer, then Chief of the Asia and Americas Division, and now General Editor. Vicki E. Futscher, Rita M. Baker, Florence Segura, and Kristin L. Ahlberg did the copy and technical editing and Susan C. Weetman coordinated the declassification review. Do Mi Stauber prepared the index.