Misled by Himself: What the Johnson Tapes Reveal about the Dominican Intervention of 1965

• Published in: Latin American research review Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 127 - 146
• Main Author: McPherson, Alan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pittsburgh, PA University of Texas Press 01-01-2003; Latin American Studies Association; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Advisors; Blame; Cold War; College baseball; Communism; Communists; Decision making; Diplomatic & consular services; Domestic politics; Dominican Republic; Evidence; Executive branch; Foreign Policy; Government crises; Government intervention; Heads of state; Historians; International relations; International relations-US; Intervention; Invasion; Johnson, Lyndon B; Johnson, Lyndon Baines (1908-1973); Judgment; Latin America; Liberalism; Libraries; Military deployment; Military intervention; Political science; Political sociology; Politics; Presidents; Regional studies; Research Reports and Notes; Research review studies; Rumors; Scandals; Senators; Sociology; Telephones; Threat; U.S.A; United States of America; Century 20; Dominican Republic; Central America; United States Of America; North America; Greater Antilles; Latin America; United States > US; Foreign Policy; Historic source; Communism; Political Crisis; Home Policy; International relations
• ISSN: 0023-8791; 1542-4278; 1542-4278
• DOI: 10.1353/lar.2003.0020

The recent release of over four hundred telephone conversations recorded in the Lyndon Baines Johnson White House from April to December 1965 provide historians with exciting new evidence on the U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic. The role of the president in that civil conflict has been up to now mysterious since Johnson rarely committed himself to paper. Critics and scholars since have somewhat exonerated him as simply another decision maker misled by a panicky country team spreading rumors of an imminent communist takeover. The tapes suggest, however, that Johnson was both aware that evidence of a takeover was insufficient and perhaps more concerned with domestic politics than with the situation in Santo Domingo. Repeatedly, close advisors attempted to dissuade him from overplaying an anti-communist rationale. But everywhere he looked in Washington Johnson saw enemies who would exploit any hesitation on his part. Soon after committing 23,000 troops, he admitted his lapses in judgment while he simultaneously sought scapegoats for them. The tapes place Johnson once and for all at the center of one of the most serious crises in the history of U.S.-Latin American relations and reveal the darker side of his foreign policy instincts.