John Bartlow Martin by Ray E. Boomhower

Author:Ray E. Boomhower [Boomhower, Ray E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Editors; Journalists; Publishers
ISBN: 9780253016188
Google: UDF3BwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2015-03-18T01:41:33+00:00

SEVEN

The Honorable Ambassador

NAMED FOR THE COUNT OF PEÑALVA, EL CONDE STREET IN Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic is a cobblestone pedestrian road that stretches from the Parque Colón to the Parque Independencia. On the morning of March 8, 1962, young demonstrators, angry that two alleged enemies of the people had been allowed refuge on American soil, ranged up and down this popular shopping district, smashing windows, wrecking storefronts, and looting merchandise. Spying a car belonging to the new U.S. ambassador, whose driver had gone to a Spanish tailor’s shop to pick up a white linen suit for the diplomat to wear when he officially presented his credentials the following day at the National Palace, the mob pulled the driver from his seat, then smashed and burned the automobile. They went on to torch two other vehicles belonging to the U.S. government and attacked the school the ambassador’s two sons attended. The boys watched from their upstairs classroom window as the demonstrators, brandishing chains and manhole covers, tore down the American flag and wrecked the school’s first floor before finally being driven away by two truckloads of Dominican soldiers armed with machine guns. Realizing the danger, adults at the school quickly hustled the boys away from the scene, and they escaped unscathed.1

The next day, March 9, John Bartlow Martin, relieved that his sons, Dan and Fred, had escaped harm, presented his credentials as the first American ambassador to the Dominican Republic since the assassination nearly ten months earlier of the country’s brutal dictator, Rafael Trujillo. For years as a freelance journalist and speechwriter for political candidates, Martin had preferred to remain out of the limelight, refusing to make many speeches, explaining to those who asked, “I do not like to present myself.” Now he had to. Surviving a brief slip on the polished marble floors as he started up the palace’s broad interior stairs, and conscious of his uncomfortable white linen suit that “felt like plywood armor,” Martin shook hands with Rafael Bonnelly, president of the Consejo de Estado, the Council of State that now ruled the Dominican Republic, and proclaimed, “Mr. President, I have the honor to present my credentials as the Ambassador of the United States to the Dominican Republic.” Bonnelly introduced him to the other six “presidents” of the council. Next came an elaborate diplomatic ballet of Martin introducing his staff to the council, and before it was over “some of us,” noted Martin, “Dominicans and Americans, were half-smiling; yet though it was awkward, even foolish, it was touching too.” Although Bonnelly did not formally apologize for the mob’s burning of the ambassador’s car, he did express his regret about the incident, and after a formal protest from the United States, the Dominican government paid to replace the vehicle. Returning after the ceremony to the residence at the U.S. Embassy, Martin, with his wife, Fran, read his copy of the credentials he had presented. More like a form letter and using diplomatic language seemingly dating from another century, it expressed President John F.

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