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

of Communist infiltration was weak to begin with; and because of the unlikelihood
that Lister, a stranger to the Dominican Republic, could quickly enter into those
Communist circles that did exist. 84 “I just remember our general feeling that the
whole exercise was ludicrous,” he recalled. 85
By finding evidence of Communist infiltration of the rebel movement, Lister’s
reports did tend to justify Johnson’s policy. On the other hand, Lister’s reports were
not necessarily beholden to the Johnson administration’s preferred version of events.
His analyses may have reduced Communist involvement in the rebel movement
beyond what the administration wished to believe. Lister also reported that there was
“some feeling in Santo Domingo that we should have pushed harder in past months
for holding elections, and that this might have helped to avoid the recent explosion.” 86
Some of what Lister reported evidently was controversial. His performance
evaluation commends him for “his intellectual courage in reporting events and
situations honestly and objectively (regardless of the effect this might have on his
career).” 87
Military Solutions to the Communist Problem
Though Lister specialized in strategies to win the ideological battle against the
Communists, he could be hawkish in his foreign policy approach. As his involvement
in the Dominican episode indicates, Lister was not averse to the use of U.S. military
power. Furthermore, at least in the late 1960s, he worked hard to support the Vietnam
45