Inter-American Peacekeeping

Report Outline
American Intervention in the Caribbean
Results of Earlier U.S. Interventions
Evolution of Inter-American System
Charter Revision at the Rio Conference

American Intervention in the Caribbean

Dominican Crisis and a Regional Peace Force

The inter-american system, three-quarters of a century old this year, faces a fateful decision. Will it establish permanent peacekeeping machinery to deal with political upheavals like that in the Dominican Republic? Or will it treat the Dominican crisis as an isolated emergency and continue to oppose armed intervention in member states? Answers to these questions may be forthcoming at the 11th Inter-American Conference, scheduled to open at Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 4.

The Council of the Organization of American States has already shattered precedent by creating a multilateral force to maintain order in the Dominican Republic. A resolution to that end was adopted May 6, eight days after the first 400 American marines had landed in Santo Domingo. It was not until May 14 that the first Latin American contingents—250 Honduran soldiers and 20 Costa Rican policemen—arrived in the Dominican capital. One week later, the United States announced that it would withdraw 1,700 of the more than 20,000 U.S. troops on occupation duty. The announcement was prompted by news that Brazil had decided to contribute 1,250 men to the O.A.S. peacekeeping force. To underscore the multinational character of the Dominican operation, a Brazilian general, Hugo Panasco Alvim, was appointed commander of the force, which includes men from six countries. About 7,500 American troops, including the entire contingent of U.S. marines, have been withdrawn from Santo Domingo since the end of May; the number remaining at latest accounts was 12,600.

Now the United States is pressing for establishment of a permanent inter-American peacekeeping force. President Johnson, speaking at Baylor University, May 28, said that “Out of the Dominican crucible the 20 American nations must… forge a stronger shield against disaster,” for “In today's world, with the enemies of freedom talking about wars of national liberation, the old distinction between the civil war and international war has already lost much of its meaning.” Two days earlier, Secretary of State Dean Rusk had told reporters in Washington that “The hemisphere needs to take up again the question of constituting some standby forces on a continuing basis, on prompt call, and the organization of political machinery for taking hemispheric decisions promptly in the face of fast-moving events.”