Cyrus Vance called the April 1965 U.S. military intervention in the Dominican Republic an illegal, unprecedented abuse of national might. Historical research into such recent and shameful moments in United States foreign policy must contend with the Kafkaesque process of government document declassification. As a result, many of the books produced from that research carry within them a contrapuntal tale that unfolds along with the historical events, the story of wresting pieces of the puzzle from official secrecy.
In this study of “Operation Power Pack” and its aftermath, Eric Thomas Chester offers both a readable narrative of the events of 1965–66 and a report on the “innumerable hurdles” (p. ix) still preventing access to the full truth. Although he succeeded in obtaining many new bits of information, he was turned away from a large number of key documents with “vague justifications” about national security.
This is a sadly familiar scenario,...
