Support for 1961 assassination

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33869, 14 June 1975, Page 15

Support for 1961 assassination

' By

NICHOLAS M. HORROCK,

of the "New York 7 imes," through N.Z.P.A.)

\\ ASHINGTON. June 13. i The Central Intelligence Agency conI tributed material support to a group of Dom- : inicans who assassinated I the Dominican Republic’s > dictator. General Rafael < Trujillo Molina, on May I 30. 1961. authoritative . Government sources ' have said. According to the sources, this is one of the successful I assassination attempts meni tioned on Thursday by Mr James Stanton < Democrat. Ohio) who is the chairman i of a house sub-committee investigating the C.I.A. I The details of the assas- | sination have also been

supplied to the Senate Select Committee on intelligence. Several Government sources said that the 1 Trujillo case was the successful attempt mentioned recently by the committee’s chairman. Senator Frank Church, (Democrat, Idaho). Information abo'ut the Doh minican assassination was given to President Ford by i Mr William E. Colby, 'Director of Central Injtelligence, in January, authoritative sources said. A C.I.A. spokesman had no comment on the report. It is not clear what foreign policy objective of the ' United States would have been served in 1961 by the killing of Trujillo. Several; .sources, however, said it; ’ was part of a series of events connected with the

Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba the month before. !t is also not. clear from, either public or private reports at how high a level Trujillo's death was authorised. Nor is it clear whether authorisation occurred duri ing the Administration of* ; Presidept Kennedy, whoj i took office in January, 1961,1 lor that of President Eisen- ; hower, Mr Kennedy’s pre-* idecessor. Trujillo was killed in a ■ hail of gunfire as he drove* i from his home in San Cristobal to Ciudad Trujillo,! capital of the Dominican Re-j public. His death ended 31 j years of what had been called an oppressive cictaitorship. The general was killed by; 1 seven Dominicans allegedly; ';led by General Juan Tomas; Diaz, who was later killed in a gunfight with Dominican; policemen.

According to authoritative' sources. C.I.A. files indicate! that the agency supplied materia! support to whati one source called an inidigenous group of Domini-1 cans who plotted and killed Trujillo. The assassination started' a huge round-up of oppo-' nents of the Trujillo regime after the attack. At one’ ‘ point some 60 persons had ■been taken into custody,! news accounts said. According to authoritative j sources, one of the men in-( jvolved in the attack cracked ! under an interrogation, i which included torture, and [told his captors that at least' ■ one of the guns used had 'been supplied by operatives of the C.I.A. An account of ■this was included in documents discovered in the .growing investigation of the agency, the sources said. I'

During the early stages of ithe investigations of the . agency, several of its former j officials said that, though j there may have been plots |to assassinate foreign lead- \ ers. there had been no successful attempts. Other intelligence sources: jsaid that should be amended jto no attempts where Amerii cans actually became in--1 volved directly in the kill- 1 lings. ' “When this is all said and: : done,” one source said, “I i think it will be clear that no : member of the C.I.A. or ■Americans were hired to assassinate Trujillo or Castro. What we are talking about ■in these cases is aid and comfort to indigenous ele- \ ments. "The degree to which the: Dominican group got aid,”, this source said, "may have been more than we now I wish,” i