At 4:40 on the afternoon of April 28, 1965, Lyndon Johnson sat down with Rusk, McNamara, Ball, Bundy, and presidential aide Bill Moyers to discuss the perilous situation in Vietnam. An hour into the meeting President Johnson was handed a cable marked “critic” (critical) from Ambassador W. Tapley Bennett in Santo Domingo. The Dominican military had spilt into at least two factions, and one was arming the populace in an effort to seize power. “Regret report situation deteriorating rapidly,” it stated. “[C]ountry team unanimously of opinion that time has come to land the marines.… American lives are in danger.” After conferring with his advisers, all of whom approved intervention, President Johnson ordered four hundred marines to proceed to the Dominican capital at once. Rusk rushed off to inform all the Latin American embassies in Washington, and Moyers left to set up a briefing session in the Cabinet Room for congressional leaders later that evening.

When Johnson and his advisers closeted themselves with the congressional leadership, Rusk stressed that the administration's decision to intervene had been based on the need to protect American lives. Newly named head of the CIA Admiral William “Red” Raborn declared that there had been “positive identification of three ring-leaders of the Rebels as Castro-trained agents.” Everett Dirksen and John McCormack immediately warned of the danger of allowing another Castroite regime to emerge in the hemisphere and declared their support for armed intervention. Fulbright's only contribution to the council of war was to recommend that the OAS be involved.