Operation Power Pack Volume 2: The April Revolution and the Inter-American Peacekeeping Force, 1965-1966

Volume 2 of Operation Power Pack continues the definitive military history of the Dominican Civil War and its international ramifications, examining the conflict from the outbreak of the April Revolution through the imposition of an uneasy peace and the withdrawal of foreign forces in 1966.

Following the collapse of the Reid Cabral government in April 1965, Santo Domingo descended into intense urban warfare as Constitutionalist forces under Colonel Francisco Caamaño confronted Loyalist units loyal to the military junta. This volume traces the conflict day by day, charting the rapid escalation from mutiny to full-scale civil war, the arming of civilian militias, the collapse of public order, and the brutal fighting that engulfed the Dominican capital. Particular attention is paid to the complex interplay between Dominican political factions, rival military commands, and the growing involvement of foreign powers.

Central to this volume is the multinational dimension of the conflict. While United States forces dominated the initial intervention, responsibility for stabilisation soon passed to the Inter-American Peacekeeping Force (IAPF), formed under the auspices of the Organization of American States. Drawing on previously unpublished sources and eyewitness material, this book provides the first detailed operational history of the IAPF, including the roles played by Brazilian, Paraguayan, Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Costa Rican contingents. Their deployments, rules of engagement, internal command structures, and interactions with both Dominican forces and the civilian population are examined in depth.

The narrative continues beyond the cessation of major combat operations, analysing the prolonged and fragile peacekeeping mission, the suppression of continued insurgent activity, and the political negotiations that culminated in the election of Joaquín Balaguer in 1966. The volume concludes with an assessment of the longer-term consequences of the intervention and an appendix examining Francisco Caamaño’s final, ill-fated guerrilla campaign in 1973.

Like Volume 1, Operation Power Pack – Volume 2 is richly illustrated with rare and unpublished photographs, detailed maps, and the @War series’ trademark colour profiles depicting the aircraft, armoured vehicles, and equipment used by Dominican, US, and Inter-American forces. Together, the two volumes form the most comprehensive military study yet published of the 1965 Dominican Civil War and one of the most significant Cold War interventions in the Western Hemisphere.