AS the days went by, the news out of Santo Domingo grew more and more ominous. By midweek it was clear that the bloody uprisings in the Dominican Republic had become the week's major story. Although the situation was confused, the editors decided that the cover subject should be the Dominican general who was most responsible for asking the U.S. to come in.

The decision set in motion a widely based team of TIME staffers. Notable among them were Caribbean Correspondent Richard Duncan and veteran Santo Domingo Stringer Bernard Diederich, who was on a brief assignment in New York. The two flew to Puerto Rico, and since all civilian access to the Dominican Republic was closed, they went the military route. From San Juan harbor they were ferried by a U.S. Navy LST to the assault carrier Boxer, already en route to Dominican waters with the first contingent of marines. A Marine helicopter then flew them from the deck of the Boxer to the Embajador Hotel grounds in the center of the war-riven capital. From the hotel they gingerly worked their way to the nearby U.S. embassy and made it safely inside as snipers fired at the building and at the marines stationed outside. To cover the whole story, they moved out onto the streets with the marines and even made their way into rebel headquarters.

As week's end (and TIME's deadline) neared, communications became--next to bullet dodging--the major problem. Cable traffic was out, telephone service spotty. Duncan finally managed to get the copy out, mostly by courier to San Juan, thence by Teletype and telephone to New York. On Saturday, Caribbean Bureau Chief Edwin Reingold flew to Santo Domingo aboard a Navy supply plane, got his own view of the situation, picked up the final takes of the Duncan-Diederich files, and made it back to San Juan on the last plane out.

Meanwhile, other TIME reporters were at work on other aspects of the story. Latin American Specialist Jerry Hannifin, one of several reporters assigned to the story in the Washington bureau, covered the series of emergency sessions of the Organization of American States. San Juan Stringer Nat Carnes talked at length with deposed President Juan Bosch, a leading figure in the drama, and bureaus and stringers throughout Latin America reported on reaction.

Working with Researchers Berta Gold, Erika Kraemer and Priscilla Badger, and drawing on the detailed and perceptive reports from the field, Writers David Tinnin and Philip Osborne and Senior Editor George Daniels were able to fashion a comprehensive account of the events as they were happening, placing the present in the perspective of history.

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