WASHINGTON: President Johnson has ordered another 6,500 US troops into the revolt-torn Dominican Republic bringing to a massive 14,000 men the strength of American forces there. News of the President’s decision came in a dramatic broadcast to the nation on the eve of a Security Council debate on Soviet and Cuban complaints of US armed intervention in [the] Dominican civil war. The US also asked the Latin American countries to make available military forces for use in the Dominican Republic. In terse sentences the President declared: “The American nations cannot, must not, and will not permit the establishment of another Communist Government in the Western Hemisphere”.

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies from New Delhi,] the militant Hindu communal organisation “Jan Sangh”, organised a number of anti-Pakistan demonstrations in the city on Saturday when the demonstrators raised slogans: “Fight Pakistan to finish, we want war for war.” The demonstrators paraded through streets shouting slogans and later held meetings. Leaders of various political parties demanded resignation of the Shastri Government if it was not prepared to meet Pakistan’s alleged challenge. Some urged the formation of [an] all-party national Government. Walls of the city have been plastered with anti-Pakistan and anti-United States posters. Joining the anti-Pakistan war hysteria, the prominent Praja Socialist leader Mr H.V. Kamath suggested that India should abandon late Prime Minister Nehru’s neutrality doctrine and should prepare the country psychologically for a military alliance to meet the threat posed by the Pakistan-China-Indonesia axis.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2015

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