Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, American Republics: Multilateral; Mexico; Caribbean, Volume VI

320. Memorandum for the Files, by Spencer M. King ¹

Washington , February 20, 1957 .

SUBJECT

• Interest of Other Agencies in State of US Relations with the Dominican Republic

At Mr. Rubottom’s request, this morning, I telephoned … CIA and Col. H.W. Taylor in the Department of Defense, and in guarded terms requested the high-level opinion of their respective agencies as to the possible interest they would have were this Government to take action against the Dominican Consul General in New York which might conceivably lead to a break in diplomatic relations; although this would not be expected. (Both had sufficient background in the Murphy–Galíndez–Espaillat affair to understand.)

… phoned back to tell me that he had consulted appropriate officials in his agency and that there was no objection to the proposed action against Consul General Espaillat.…

Col. Taylor phoned me at noon to state that the Air Force position had been developed and transmitted to the office of Mr. Gordon Gray (ISA), which would be in touch with me shortly. At my urging, he explained, completely unofficially, that the Air Force considered installations in the Dominican Republic to be “vital” and that they “must be maintained.” Subsequently, Captain Stewart of Mr. Gray’s office telephoned. He explained that the missiles facilities in question had three objectives; observation, destruction and the maintenance of a manned repeater link in the interconnecting cable. The first two of these are not vital but the third is. Were there to be a break in diplomatic relations requiring the departure of all personnel, the repeater link could quite easily be converted to an unmanned one. Were it necessary to remove the installation itself, however, a serious problem would arise. Eventually it could be bypassed through other arrangements, but only at the expense of considerable sums of money and appreciable delay which would interfere with the missiles development program. He concurred that facilities “must be maintained.” Gen. Fox,² acting as head of ISA in Mr. Gray’s absence, subsequently confirmed this opinion to Mr. Rubottom by telephone. Still later, Captain Stewart called me again to say that this position had been considered by additional interested persons in the Pentagon, including the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Guided Missiles,³ and that all were in agreement that the facility “must be maintained,” although they recognized that other arrangements could be made in the event of absolute necessity.

I informed Mr. Rubottom of the foregoing.⁴

1. Source: Department of State, ARA Special Assistant’s Files: Lot 59 D 376, Murphy Case. Secret.
2. Lieutenant General Alonzo P. Fox, Military Adviser in the Office of International Security Affairs.
3. Eger V. Murphree.
4. Acting Assistant Secretary Rubottom reported in a memorandum of telephone conversation, February 20, that he had spoken with General Fox. According to the memorandum, Fox confirmed the view that the Department of Defense considered the guided missile facility in the Dominican Republic to be vital. (Department of State, Rubottom Files: Lot 59 D 573, Dominican Republic)