Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
236
traders.” After some brief indications of displeasure at the “overthrow of
a democratically elected government” (the State Department’s official
condemnation), the US quickly recognized and offered full support to the
new regime. 170
In the face of the record he reviews, Blasier nevertheless states that
despite its overwhelming influence, “the United States failed in its
objective of maintaining Bosch, a popularly elected president, in office in
an orderly transition to a democratic system.” That this was the
objective is a matter of doctrine, immune to fact.
Gleijeses points out that Bosch had been the candidate of “the
peasants, the urban unemployed, the working-class poor,” people who
“previously had never played a role in the political life of the nation.” He
introduced a “modern and democratic” constitution and legal system,
attacked the endemic corruption, and defended civil liberties, attempting
“to create a sense of civic spirit, an elementary honesty that could have
sparked a true renaissance of Dominican society.” He compelled the
police to exercise restraint for the first time, slashed salaries of high
officials, and refused the standard perquisites of office himself so that
when he left for exile, he was penniless, an unprecedented
phenomenon. These actions infuriated the Dominican elites and the
military, and were intolerable to the Kennedy Administration. The
Kennedy liberals were particularly outraged by Bosch’s defense of civil
liberties of leftists and by the fact that he was an ardent nationalist,
unwilling to do what he was told by his US overseers, in contrast to his
predecessors; earlier governments “seemed to feel that I was one of
them,” Ambassador Martin commented, while condemning Bosch as
“ungrateful,” “obstinate,” and unwilling to share power. Bosch laid the
basis for effective land reform, which was beginning to show promise
when he was overthrown after seven months in office, and undertook
efforts at education of workers and peasants for democratic participation