Power Pack: U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965-1966

Leavenworth Papers #15

by Lawrence A. Yates, Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Department of the Army

First published in 1988, this study describes a military operation characterized by multiple - service participation. The author's contribution provides an important analysis of the interplay between state craft and military operational planning and execution. The study addresses not only questions of planning and deployment but the course of the intervention from the landing of marines to evacuate American citizens, through the commitment of the 82d Airborne Division to separate the combatants in the Dominican civil war, to the establishment of the ad hoc Inter- American Peace Force, the First hemispheric military organization of its kind. The United States intervention in the Dominican Republic was successful. It accomplished the mission of preventing a Communist takeover and providing the military presence to make a political settlement possible. Nevertheless, Power Pack experienced its share of problems associated with outdated operations plans, poor communications and coordination, hasty planning, and inadequate staff and facilities. This study's true value lies in the identification of these problems in an effort to understand why they occurred and to prevent their recurrence.

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Barry Sierer · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Power Pack: U.S Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965-1966”, is a concise, well-organized account of an operation that was quite the opposite.

Lawrence Yates goes through the political and logistical issues, the hidden objective of the mission, (”to prevent another Cuba”) and the stated policy goals of preventing the emergence of both right wing and left-wing dictatorships in the region.

The operation was so badly hampered by a lack of real field intelligence, logistical issues, shifting political goals, and debilitating rules of engagement, it’s amazing that it worked at all. Much of the initial “intelligence” was really just the unsubstantiated opinions of diplomats stuck inside the US Embassy who did not really know what was going on outside it.

Despite the staggering issues presented to US and OAS Forces. They acted to install a moderate interim government to end the Dominican Civil War.