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This article discusses the effect of civil war of 1965 that took place in Dominican Republic on its present socio-political conditions. Although, President Joaquín Balaguer is back in power after a military coup, his victorious Reform Party shares legislative responsibility with Bosch's Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD). However, the mere existence of a legally elected President and a loyal opposition does not solve the problems of the Dominican Republic. The roots of its dark and tragic past still live and threaten to strangle what is as yet only a promise of social, economic and political progress. One of the biggest threats is the army, heavily influenced by a clique of ruthless, corrupt officers who long for "the good old days."

It is possible to forecast the result of the Presidential election in the Dominican Republic with absolute accuracy. On May 16, 1934, Presidential candidate Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina will have been unanimously reelected for another four-year term. It is the type of election made familiar to all by Latin American dictators. Potential opposition candidates are in exile or several feet under the sod. Some fifteen years ago, the U.S. military occupation of the Dominican Republic was exposed. But of course in those days no one in official circles paid much attention to the pleas for a different kind of Latin American policy.

The Dominican Republic, five months after the ouster of President Juan Bosch, is evolving into a police state with a mounting record of brutality and corruption. Military domination returned to the Dominican Republic on September 25, 1964 when a coup ousted the seven month-old Bosch regime and installed a puppet civilian junta representing six right-wing political parties. Scores of democratic political leaders have been deported without judicial process and hundreds of others have been arrested. In December 1964, the puppet triumvirate suspended constitutional guarantees against arbitrary imprisonment. From jails come persistent stories of beatings and torture.

This article focuses on the elections in Dominican Republic. With the election of Juan Bosch as President of the Dominican Republic, that political delicate Caribbean country has a new leader, Latin America has a new democracy and hemispheric liberals hero. The overwhelming victory of Bosch, standard-bearer of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, returns constitutional government to this troubled nation after thirty-one years of agonizing tyranny under former President Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo of equal significance, it adds momentum to the swelling tide of the "democratic Left" in Latin America.

Reflects on the decision of the U.S. to intervene in the politial affairs in the Dominican Republic in 1965. Background on the rebellion in the country launched by groups perceived as Communist-dominated; Troops sent by then President Lyndon Johnson to the country to protect the lives of U.S. nationals; Criticisms on the exaggerated response of the U.S. to the Dominican Republic situation.

Latin America has suffered from many dictatorships, but all were almost exclusively political. The case of Rafael Trujillo is different. He usurped power and then, gradually, took over the national economy. For him the state is an instrument at the service of his boundless ambition for wealth. Much has been written about the terrorism of his thirty-year-old regime, the suppression of civil rights and liberties, the mass murders perpetrated upon helpless peasants, the assassinations Trujillo has engineered not only on his own soil, but in the United States and Cuba. More than 70 per cent of the Dominican Republic's sugar plantations, and 60 per cent of all other agricultural land, belong to him or to his family, similar figures are applicable to the nation's small industry.

Presents several letters to the editor. Description of the political conditions in Dominican Republic; Appreciation of the political suggestions and hints provided by the journal "The Nation"; Number of farmers in Dominican Republic who have volunteered their labor for community improvement activities.

The article presents the author's comments on the political activities of Dominican Republic. The author says that Dominican Representatives will talk about peace and liberty at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations Assembly. In the Dominican Republic practically every street every school, every two-story house bears the inscription "built by the initiative of the benefactor of the nation." The Dominican representative to the UN will have a worthy rival in the person of the delegate from Paraguay. But President of Paraguay is less vain than the dictator of the Dominican Republic but he can match him when it comes to dealing with the opposition.