U.S. Invades the Dominican Republic (1965)
Wed Apr 28, 1965
On this day in 1965, the U.S. invaded the Dominican Republic with more than 22,000 troops in order to prevent a "communist dictatorship" from forming there. The military action was supported by the Organization of American States (OAS).
The Dominican Republic had been fraught with political instability since the assassination of dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1961. Although Trujillo brutally suppressed the population, his anti-communism made him a natural ally of the U.S. government. After his death, liberal reformer Juan Bosch became president, but he was deposed in a coup after less than a year in power.
In the ensuing power struggle, the U.S. was committed to preventing "another Cuba" (i.e., a communist revolution) from taking place. On April 28th, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that he had taken action to forestall the establishment of a "communist dictatorship" in the country, providing reporters with lists of suspected communists there as evidence. These lists, however, contained people who were not communists or were in fact deceased.
The military action was supported by the Organization of American States (OAS). Over the next few weeks, they established a conservative, non-military government, which held fraudulent elections in June 1966. 69% of American people approved of the decision to send in troops at the time.
According to Rory Fanning of Jacobin: "Upon taking power, U.S.-backed leader Joaquín Balaguer began funneling nearly all of Dominican Republic's minerals and sugar into the warehouses of U.S. businesses. His three-decade rule was marked by corruption and fraud. Wages plummeted, unions were dismantled, inflation soared, and unemployment hovered around 30 percent."
- Date: 1965-04-28
- Learn More: www.history.com, www.jacobinmag.com.
- Tags: #Communism, #Assassinations.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org
The red scare was pretty bad/wrong most of the time, but you say "communist dictatorship" as if they weren't extremely common at the time.
You had China, North Korea, Cuba, the USSR, etc. This was the height of the cold war, 3 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
No, could you explain how you get to that conclusion? it seems a excuse to regurgitate unrelated anticomunist talking points.
Anticommunist? Never. Antidictatorship? 10,000% correct, you're way understating how much I dislike the USSR and CCP.
Communism itself is a working class dictatorship
A real communism maybe but definitely not any ever described. Those were just dictatorship by dictators, individuals with absolute power and authority akin to kings.
Hit the books some more
I don't think you've read enough theory, comrade.
Everything you’re saying sounds exactly like you’ve listened to US red scare propaganda for way too long. Like the answer to some of what you’re saying is literally in the text up above us
I'm sorry for coming to the conclusion that drunken kings, who murder their own citizens, threatening nuclear haulocaust was a "bad thing."
Capitalism is the root of it, not communism
Okay then, why doesn't somebody do something about the capitalism in those Communist Dictatorships? Hopefully the process involves dethroning the Dictator.
Decentralization is what needs to occur next. Communism is far from perfect and I think anarcho-syndicalism is where it’s at. The parts that communism has right on is that economies need to be based around the needs of people and not profits, the dictatorship wouldn’t be necessary if the higher classes gave up power but they never do. It’s not the end all solution but a step forward
You can't instantly go to communism from capitalism. Even Marx knew this. It was a process (like everything is, that's part of the dialectical materialism component of Marxism).
Lenin called that process from capitalism to communism socialism, and that term has basically stuck. Basically, you need to build up productive forces, and in a globalized society like we have now you also need to trade with capitalist countries, especially when the current hegemony is capitalist and only trades with you if you're capitalist.
What Lenin built, intentional or otherwise, was the biggest, most hostile, least free, fastest self-destructing world power in modern history.
So your theory doesn't hold water, mate. A bowl that is filled can hold no water.
It wasn't as hostile as the US or Nazi Germany, and was way more free for minorities and women than the US, and only self-destructed because of constant interference by the US and liberals getting into power, and it being the first socialist country. It also rose into power way faster than basically any world power in modern history, from a non-industrial economy of mostly peasants farming to going to space in just a few short decades. You're just falling for a lot of Western propaganda.
China is following the same mode of some capitalism with some socialism with lessons learned from the USSR of experiment and is set to overtake the US in basically every way fairly soon, but we'll see how it goes. It's possible they'll make some mistakes, too, but Trump is the President so...