Page 282 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

784 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

much of the champagne are so common that many probably went unrecorded. 35

Such actions, which were informed by racism and ignorance of Dominican culture among
the largely uneducated and unprepared occupying forces, also included such crimes as rape
and theft, and were widespread in the provinces—especially in areas of higher Dominican
resistance or areas that suffered more from the frustrations and dangers of being cut off from
supplies and orders. But many Marine officers, despite such tensions, developed programs
through the occupation years in attempts to improve military relations with the Dominican
citizenry, and to build popular support for the GND.

earLy civic action
In attempting to improve civil-military relations through the early years of the occupa-
tion, to better facilitate public acceptance of the occupation in the face of so many resistance
movements, the Marines took many initiatives—from legal reform to social and cultural
innovations. The failures of these initiatives to gain much local support from Dominicans
in the provinces were products of the wider failures of the occupation. As the 1916-1924
occupation of the Dominican Republic was one of the earliest forming grounds in which
the U.S. Marine Corps attempted to develop strategies for what in Vietnam would become
known as “civic action,” a better understanding of Marine attempts—and their successes
and failures—is necessary in understanding the development of Marine initiatives among
foreign populations throughout the twentieth century. Civic initiatives undertaken during
the occupation did meet with some successes, but seldom the ones intended by the military
government and occupying forces both because of the above inconsistencies and because of
the very nature of the reforms. Due to the organization of the command structure, and to the
difficulties of communication in the early years of occupation, these initiatives tended to be
regional—imagined and formed based on Marine experiences in different parts of the coun-
try, which varied greatly in culture due to long traditions of regionalism.
Captain Harry Knapp (military governor from 1916 to 1918) attempted to improve civil-
military relations throughout the provinces with some early general orders based on im-
provement of the country’s infrastructure and health system; however, most of the general
orders pertaining to civil-military relations were either general reforms of the military or
military commands, or came from provincial Marine initiatives that seemed to have achieved
some measure of success. Further, some of these general orders, when carried out in certain
provinces, actually damaged Marine relations with Dominicans. Attempts at land distribu-
tion serve as a great example: while they were meant to improve social order and econom-
ic output, and therefore to lessen reasons for armed resistance and to increase Dominican
acceptance of the occupation, they increased Dominican fears of imperial imposition, and
worsened Marine relationships with Dominicans throughout the provinces. While attempts at
major restructuring such as land redistribution are historically difficult, and tend to meet with
resistance by local populations, the military government’s lack of understanding of Domini-
can history and culture destroyed its attempts to account for that and ease acceptance of such

35 Calder, 1978, 662.