460 ChaPter^9
money and arms, though precise numbers for the aid are not available. The
elites and their American allies planted rumors throughout Brazilian media
that Goulart was going to give power to Communists to radically change
Brazil, and the level of alarm just kept rising. The American ambassador at
the time, Lincoln Gordon, urged that arms, gas, and oil be sent to members
of the Brazilian military involved in the plot to overthrow Goulart. On April
1 st, 1964, military forces began to move on Goulart, who was in Rio de
Janeiro at the time, and he fled the country. The U.S. denied any involvement
in the plot to get rid of Goulart, but later documents showed that officials
from the state department and CIA along with businessmen like the head of
ITT, and even union officials from the AFL-CIO, were involved in the plan-
ning and overthrow. In fact, Lincoln Gordon later claimed that Johnson “had
been prepared to intervene militarily to prevent a leftist takeover of the gov-
ernment,” but did not find it necessary.
In the Dominican Republic [DR], the U.S. took similar actions. The long-
time dictator Rafael Trujillo had been assassinated in 1961, and was suc-
ceeded by Juan Bosch, from the opposition party. The military and political
elite feared Bosch, claiming he was influenced by Communists and would
create “another Cuba,” while the Catholic Church opposed him because he
had legalized divorce. As a result, these forces joined together and overthrew
Bosch in September 1963. The next 2 years were full of turmoil, with fre-
quent strikes and conflicts and a new leadership group that declared the DR
constitution “nonexistent.” Soon, the Bosch supporters and those who backed
the regime in power were fighting in the streets. Bosch’s group seemed to
have the upper hand as armed civilians outnumbered the rebels from the
military. Lyndon Johnson was convinced that “Communists” or “Castroites”
were dominating the Bosch group, so he ordered an evacuation of American
citizens from the DR, and in April 1965 sent in U.S. Marines to conduct the
evacuation. Fearing Cuban influence in the DR, for which he had no evi-
dence, Johnson ordered the Marines to remain there to “restore order,” mean-
ing to put the anti-Bosch, DR military forces into power. In fact the head of
the U.S. military told the general in charge of DR operations, “your unan-
nounced mission is to prevent the Dominican Republic from going
Communist.” Initially sent just as an evacuation force, Johnson launched an
invasion of the DR with a fleet of 41 vessels to blockade the island, and
Marines and parts of the Army’s 82d Airborne Division, eventually reaching