Foreign Relations: Two Views from the Top

While a bewildering array of soldiers and statesmen still strove to sort things out in the Dominican Republic (see THE HEMISPHERE), the two foremost foreign policy spokesmen in the U.S.—President Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk—paused to assess the situation.

The Name's the Same. Rusk, in his first press conference since the Dominican civil war erupted five weeks ago, told Washington newsmen that it had quickly become apparent that "extremist elements were attempting to capitalize on the anarchy and the disorder to seize control." Only "the prompt arrival of American forces," he said, "averted a major disaster." When one reporter suggested that the U.S. might have "overreacted" to estimates of Communist influence among the rebels, Rusk snapped: "I don't know how one draws the line between overreaction and underreaction. There is no question at all in our minds that there was a very serious threat for a period that elements of the extreme left had seized control of mobs who had been armed."

As for the fact that only a few dozen Communist leaders might have been involved, he added, "I just don't believe that one underestimates what can be done in a situation of violence and chaos by a few highly organized, highly trained people."

At present, said Rusk, the Red threat "has been very substantially reduced, although not completely eliminated." At one point, a newsman noted that Rusk had not used the word "Communist" once, instead was talking about "leftists" and "leftist extremists." "Is there anything significant in that?" asked the newsman. Replied Rusk: "None at all. I will be glad to call them Communists."

Three Realities. At week's end, President Johnson went to Waco, Texas, to speak to the graduating class of Baylor University. Like Rusk, he recounted the events leading to U.S. intervention. "Blood and hate drowned ideals, and for days freedom itself stood on the edge of disaster," he said. "In those early, terrible hours, we did what we had to do."

And what comes next? "Out of the Dominican crucible the 20 American nations must now forge a stronger shield against disaster," he said. But to do so, they must keep in mind some "new realities."

The first reality, he said, "is that old concepts and old labels are largely obsolete. In today's world, with the enemies of freedom talking about 'wars of national liberation,' the old distinction between 'civil war' and 'international war' has lost much of its meaning." The second reality is that "when forces of freedom move slowly, the forces of slavery and subversion move rapidly and decisively." The third is that "when a Communist group seeks to exploit misery, the entire free inter-American system is put in deadly danger. We can expect more efforts at triumph by terror and conquest through chaos."