Guilt & the Back Door

Guilt at the Back Door

What was all the rumbling and smoke in the Caribbean in the last two years? Was it comic-opera intrigue and filibustering? Or blood-serious plotting for revolution and war? Last week, in an18,000-word report, the fact-finding committee set up by the Organization of American States gave its answer: it accused the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Guatemala of conspiring against each other and their neighbors, of gambling recklessly with peace in the Caribbean.

The plotters' names surprised nobody; but the committee went on to demand that teeth be riveted into existing inter-American agreements so that the Rio Reciprocal Assistance Treaty of 1947 could be used instantly, any time. The hemisphere's key defense document, the Rio Treaty is similar to the North Atlantic pact; it unites the American nations on a one-for-all basis, and provides for the use of political and economic sanctions --or joint use of hemisphere armed forces. Aiding & Fomenting. Upholding charges (TIME, Jan. 16) of the Haitian government that the Dominican Republic had helped organize a plot to overthrow the regime of President Estime last December, the committee thundered: "The Dominican Republic has been guilty of tolerating, instigating, aiding and fomenting subversive movements against other governments." But so had Cuba and Guatemala. Both governments at one time had harbored armed groups, "animated by the unconcealed purpose of overthrowing the government of the Dominican Republic."

The committee asked the O.A.S. to create a "watchdog" commission to keep an eye on the Caribbean. It also warned the O.A.S. that "disturbed relations" would persist in the Caribbean unless the organization took definite action on the committee's recommendations.

Cops & Robbers. The U.S. stood squarely behind the committee. Its O.A.S. envoy, veteran Careerman Paul C. Daniels, had vigorously put across the State Department's view that it was high time to end the wearisome game of cops & robbers in the Caribbean. The U.S., busy across the globe, was worried lest someone,' some day, might take advantage of a Caribbean quarrel, slip inside the hemisphere's back door, and use a l>>cal spat in the American family to sow the seeds of Communism or fascism.

To prevent that, the U.S. was willing to speed up the procedure for using the Rio Treaty, and thus provide trigger-quick retaliation against anybody disturbing hemisphere peace.

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