Los Estados Unidos y Trujillo

In Los Estados Unidos y Trujillo: Los días finales, 1960– 61, Dominican historian and economist Bernardo Vega examines U.S.-Dominican relations during Trujillo’s last 17, months in power. In this fifth volume of his United States and Trujillo series, Vega sets out to analyze U.S.-Dominican relations during a period of “extraordinary importance” (p. 1). In addition to volumes corresponding to the years 1930, 1945, 1946, 1947, and the current volume, Vega has published books outside the series that examine specific themes in U.S.-Dominican relations, such as U.S. financial control in the Dominican Republic and Trujillo’s relationship with members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Vega’s research, which is presented in a clear and organized manner, was facilitated during his 1997–99 term as Dominican Ambassador to the United States.Although Vega published two books in 1991 that dealt with the same years under study in this volume, Eisenhower y Trujillo and Kennedy y los Trujillos relied almost exclusively on documents in the Dominican National Archives and the Eisenhower and Kennedy Presidential Libraries. This latest volume was compiled from an amazing compendium of documents from the State Department, the CIA, and the Dominican National Archives. State Department and CIA documents from this period were not available to scholars until 1995. Although many were declassified in 1995, numerous documents still remain beyond the reach of scholars. Notwithstanding Vega’s efforts in court to force the CIA to release the remain ing documents, especially those relating to CIA participation in the plot to assassinate Trujillo, some still remain closed to scholars. Vega, therefore, has attempted to fill in the classified holes with personal interviews. Especially beneficial to the study was information Vega obtained from surviving CIA operatives and other members of the U.S. diplomatic staff in Santo Domingo, many of whom he invited to a special reception in the Dominican Embassy in 1998.Especially interesting is Vega’s use of anecdotal accounts to describe the CIA’s involvement with opposition groups in the Dominican Republic planning to assassinate Trujillo. According to Vega, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo never dealt directly with the Dominicans involved in the 1961 assassination of Trujillo. Rather, Ambassador Joseph Farland, Consul Henry Dearborn, and others worked through intermediaries.Vega’s book, however, is not merely a collection of documents. His analysis of events weaves the documents and interviews into a compelling historical study. An incredible collection of over one hundred photographs adds to the usefulness of the book. Brief chapters discuss the period immediately preceding and following the period under study, but the majority of the book’s chapters are arranged according to month, starting with January 1960 and ending in May 1961. Vega chronicles how and why the United States, as well as the rest of Latin America, broke diplomatic relations with the Trujillo regime and imposed economic sanctions. Vega then analyzes the responses of the Trujillo regime to the sanctions. Here, Vega is at his best. He explains that Trujillo’s response to U.S. hostility was similar to his response when faced with U.S. criticism in 1946. While allowing exiled communists to return to the Dominican Republic and organize political rallys in an attempt to convince the United States that the only alternative to his authoritarian dictatorship was communism, he simultaneously attempted to create a facade of democratization. Following the time-honored Latin American tradition of para Inglés ver (for the Anglos to see), Trujillo replaced his brother Héctor, upon whom the presidency had been imposed by the dictator in 1952, with intellectual Joaquín Balaguer. Trujillo’s biggest miscalculation, however, was the mistaken belief that the assassination of Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt would restore friendly relations with the United States. Trujillo’s bluffs, threats, and failed assassination plots backfired and relations with the United States deteriorated.Although Vega’s translations of the English-language documents are impeccable and clearly a valuable research tool, caution should be exercised. In something like the selection process used by historians who compile the documents for the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series, Vega has chosen the documents that he believes best illustrate U.S.-Dominican relations during the last days of the Trujillo regime. Vega’s compilation, therefore, is not a substitute for research trips to the archives. Regardless, Vega’s seemingly tireless efforts to collect and analyze documents from the United States and the Dominican Republic have greatly contributed to the advancement of the study of U.S.-Dominican relations during the Trujillo era

Art · Humanities · Political science · State (computer science) · Cuban History and Society

• Trayectorias escolares universitarias de acuerdo con el capital cultural de los estudiantes de licenciatura de la Upsin

  Open Access•Miguel Ángel Araiza Lozano•Revista Latinoamericana de…•1970

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