Announcer: Vietnam was not the only armed conflict of 1965 and not the only one in which Americans fought. Revolution flared in the Dominican Republic. American Embassy spokesman Malcolm McLean described the chaos.

Malcolm McLean: "There has been very little firing in the city during the night. There are some tanks running around here and there but not shooting, there is no plane flying overhead. Most people are waiting for the dawn. So far there has been no indication today of any effort to turn this thing against American National or against the American Embassy."

Pie Chamberlain: But President Johnson said he felt American lives were threatened and he sent in the marines. This island nation is next door to Cuba and the President saw an additional danger of a communist takeover, a few days later he said...

Lyndon Baines Johnson: We don't propose to sit here in a rocking chair with our hands folded and let the Communist set up any government in the western hemisphere.

Pie Chamberlain: Cuba itself came into the news later this year. Bearded Cuban dictator Fidel Castro suddenly offered to let his people go, some of them anyhow. But before formal arrangements could be concluded with the United States an illegal armada of small vessels left for Cuba to ferry refugees back to Florida. They were breaking State Department rules and risking arrest upon their return, but as one skipper said...

Unknown Speaker: "Now the United States thinks that they can deny my freedom for giving other peoples freedom, this is what they are going to have to do. But I will do it again if I have a chance that this is what's right."

Pie Chamberlain: Finally the delicate negotiations were completed and American planes began to fly thousands of dissatisfied Cubans to freedom.