Dominican Republic: Dancing in the Streets

For three weeks a power struggle had raged over who should inherit the fiefdom of slain Dictator Rafael Trujillo. With so much passion involved, it was surprisingly bloodless. But so long as it was unresolved, the prospects of trouble hung over the Dominican Republic. Backed by a stubborn general strike in the streets, the middle-of-the-road National Civic Union (U.C.N.) demanded the disappearance of the last vestiges of Trujilloism. The two most conspicuous Trujillo vestiges—Armed Forces Boss Pedro Ramón Rodriguez Echaverria and Trujillo's pet President Joaquin Balaguer—as stubbornly resisted vanishing.

The man who held out longest was Rodriguez Echaverria. He ordered...