Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin

Domingo as part of an inter-departmental team charged with gathering evidence that
Communists had taken over the rebel movement. 63
The political situation in the Dominican Republic in 1965 was complicated.
Prior to the 1960s, the country had suffered for three decades under the brutal rule of
dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. 64 In 1962, the country elected Juan Bosch, a
moderate leftist, as president. A military coup deposed Bosch from power in
September 1963. 65 In April 1965, an uprising began which attempted to restore Bosch
to power. President Johnson, arguing that Communists had taken over the rebel
movement and that a rebel victory would lead to a second Communist nation in the
Caribbean, intervened to prevent the rebels’ success. In May 1965, the U.S. deployed
a force of more than 31,000 from the Army, Navy, and Marines. 66
Upon only two hour’s notice, Lister was chosen as the State Department
representative to go to Santo Domingo to produce evidence of Communist takeover
of the rebel movement. 67 Arriving by Air Force plane on May 5, 1965, he was
accompanied by a representative from the Department of Defense, an Army officer,
and two representatives from the Department of Justice. 68 Over the course of several
days, Lister interviewed Dominicans on both sides of the conflict, tape recording
some of his interviews; 69 he then cabled synopses of his interviews to Washington.
Among those he interviewed were the following: José Rafael Molina Urena, a rebel
leader who had briefly been installed as president until a successful junta offensive; 70
42