Invading Haiti: But Just How Long Do We Want to Stay? : Some food for thought--the last U.S. intervention there lasted 19 years

With the Clinton Administration seriously thinking of using U.S. military power to end the political crisis in Haiti, some critics are pointing out that a similar U.S. military intervention there--from 1915 to 1934--did little good and even may have contributed to the problems that nation faces today. Although too glib, that argument does have some merit. Clearly Washington needs to ponder Haiti’s history before intervening there again--if only to keep U.S. policy-makers sharply aware of the towering amount of work that would remain even after the Marines ousted the junta in Port-au-Prince.

The Elites That Have Always Ruled the Troubled Nation:

Today’s divided Haitian society, with its small urban elite reluctant to cede power to a poor peasant majority, dates to 1804 when the former French colony won independence after a long slave revolt. The majority of former slaves chose to settle as independent farmers in rural areas. A few wealthy families tried to re-create the French plantation system but failed. Other members of the elite managed to take control of the foreign trade centered in the capital and used their financial clout to control the government, which included two new sources of wealth and power--the military and the tax system.

For generations political turmoil was largely limited to infighting among the elite over the spoils of government power. That turmoil generated the crisis that led President Woodrow Wilson to order in the Marines. The 19-year U.S. administration in Haiti helped further consolidate political power in Port-au-Prince. Marine trainers improved the Haitian army. U.S. military engineers built new roads that allowed the government--usually through the army--to reach all parts of the nation for the first time. Centralized power was well-established when in 1956 the government came under the control of the brutal dictator Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier, whose family would rule the small nation as a corrupt fiefdom for the next 30 years. The Duvaliers co-opted the members of the elite whom they could not terrorize as they did the poor masses.

The Duvalier regime collapsed in 1986 when the dictator’s heirs fled to a prosperous exile. The current standoff in Haiti--between the exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a clique of military and police officers who ousted him in 1991--is arguably only the latest painful twist in the aftermath of the Duvalier regime.

And a Novel Political Fact--the Democratically Conducted Aristide Election:

But there is a difference this time, and it is a vitally important one to anyone who truly believes in the necessity of democracy for trouble-plagued Haiti. Aristide was overwhelmingly elected in the most open and honest election ever held there. More than 67% of voters cast ballots for the controversial former Roman Catholic priest. Perhaps as important for the United States, the nine months of Aristide’s presidency were the only time in the last few years when illegal immigration from Haiti to this country declined.

Clearly, no solution to Haiti’s woes can exclude Aristide. The challenge is to convince Haiti’s military--and the elite that supports it, precisely because it mistrusts Aristide--of this fact. The military has refused every effort to work out an arrangement for Aristide’s return, even a carefully crafted diplomatic formula signed under U.N. auspices in 1993. That is why some in the White House and Congress now want Marines in Haiti--only this time just long enough to oust the junta that is keeping out the legitimately elected president.

To be sure, a great power like the United States can never rule out the military option. But before such a heavy-handed approach is used, every effort must be made to oust the junta through non-military pressure, like the economic sanctions imposed recently by the United Nations and the Organization of American States. Perhaps when they are hit hard enough in the pocketbook the Haitian economic elite will withdraw their support from a leadership composed of military thugs and shift it, however grudgingly, to the most popular president in Haiti’s modern history. An awesome challenge of nation building would still remain for President Aristide, but at least he would be able to face it without the inevitable complications, and bitter aftertaste, of a U.S. military intervention.