Haiti Invasion Threatened

Re “U.S. Uses Toughest Language Yet on Haiti,” Sept. 1:

At an Aug. 31 press conference, Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott all but promised a U.S.-led invasion of Haiti. I am sure they know that the U.S. invaded Haiti in 1915 and then occupied that nation from 1915 to 1934. And, that the most visible product of that military occupation was the formation and training by U.S. Marines of the Garde d’Haiti , which evolved into the Haitian armed forces, whose current military rulers were threatened by Talbott with certain arrest by the U.S. and being turned over to a U.S.-military-installed Aristide government.

I am sure they know that, after the last U.S. military occupation, the Haitian political structure deteriorated and all elections were crooked. Haiti had either puppet officials ruled by the military or dictators who put the military under their absolute control. And, during most of those years, the U.S. provided economic aid to those governments. Finally, in 1986, the U.S. President backed a military junta which drove out dictator Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier and replaced him with Gen. Henri Namphy, who, in 1988, was ousted and replaced by Gen. Prosper Avril. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected and served as president for only seven months in 1991 before the military ousted him. So much for a U.S. military invasion and occupation of Haiti!

Apparently, former President Bush learned from our history. He told a banking conference in Buenos Aires: “We should not use force against Haiti. “I don’t want to see United States soldiers occupying foreign territory.” I hope that news media editors and commentators will make sure that everyone knows that there never has been democracy in Haiti, despite 80 years of U.S. military and economic intervention.

JAMES W. LEISNER

Irvine

It would be a great mistake for President Clinton to send U.S. troops to invade Haiti. Many people in Haiti and elsewhere would regard that, rightly or wrongly, as a return to imperialism and look upon the Americans as foreign invaders and greet their arrival with hatred.

If Clinton is convinced that force is necessary to oust Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and his gang, there is better way.

Haitians should be equipped and trained to do the job, not Americans. There are enough Haitians at Guantanamo and in Florida to make up a sufficient contingent to get the job done. President Aristide could lead his own troops made up of his own countrymen and followers to liberate his own land from the forces of evil. He would gain legitimacy and stature by doing so rather than riding in on the coattails of the U.S. Marines. Why, Aristide could even be regarded as another Toussaint L’Ouverture!

Far better that Haitians should be directly responsible for bringing freedom and democracy to their own homeland than that they should have to rely upon Americans to do the job for them.

THOMAS McENROE

San Clemente

Regarding the slide to war in Haiti: Where are the Haitian freedom fighters? What is the “Haitian National Liberation Front” up to? Why are there no reports of clandestine military camps in Florida where American volunteers are training Haitian patriots?

Why is the only “option” left that of sending American sons and daughters overseas to fight (and die) for the freedom of a people that are unwilling to fight for their own liberty?

Shades of Vietnam! Have we learned nothing?

LEON PALMER

Rancho Palos Verdes

Beware of foreign policy ideas wrapped in righteous explanations by tired technocrats reworking failed policies from the past. Cuba’s migrants now arriving in Panama (Sept. 7) are being held at Empire Range, where those opposed to the 1989 United States invasion of Panama were also kept--such as Panama’s recently elected president, Ernesto Perez Balladares.

Doesn’t anyone in Washington working on Haitian policy remember that the embargo of Panama did not force Gen. Manuel Noriega out, that the invasion cost a huge amount in lives and economic treasure, that drug trafficking has not ended, and that the political party of the new government in Panama supported the policies of both Gen. Omar Torrijos and Gen. Noriega?

Are we destined to suffer a similar irony in the future in Haiti just because President Clinton feels he has to prove how tough he is on those who defy his view of the world and because our “experts” are still trying to prove that economic embargoes, inevitably having to be followed by U.S. military force, provide the lasting security we crave?

GODFREY HARRIS

Los Angeles

Harris, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer, is the co-author of “The Panamanian Problem--How the Bush and Reagan Administrations Dealt With the Noriega Regime,” 1993.