May 2, 1965 | LBJ Speech on Dominican Crisis

May 2, 1965 - In a televised speech from the White House tonight, President Johnson announced that he had committed a total of 14,000 U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic and said that their mission was to protect lives and to “prevent another Communist state in this hemisphere.”
Johnson said that what began as a “popular democratic revolution” eight days ago had been seized by “a band of Communist conspirators.” He appealed to non-Communist rebels to lay down their arms and urged all the American nations to support him in the defense of “common principles.”

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