Dominican Republic: A Farewell to Arms

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The elections were over, tempers were cooling, and people were finally talking about something besides politics. So last week, in a meeting at Washington's Pan American Union, the Organization of American States voted 18 to 0 to withdraw the 8,000 OAS peace-keeping troops still in the Dominican Republic. The pull-out will take 90 days and begin before the inauguration of President-elect Balaguer on July 1.

From a force that grew to 30,000 men at the height of the civil war 13 months ago, the OAS troop contingent last week was down to 6,300 from the U.S., 1,150 troops from Brazil, and token forces from Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay. At week's end two Navy landing craft were on their way from Norfolk, Va., to begin the evacuation.