U.S. Escalates Psychological War Against Haiti’s Leaders

Last weekend, after weeks of careful planning, a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane flew low along the coast of Haiti, dropping thousands of white leaflets with a picture of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a poetic pledge for his return.

“The sun of democracy . . . the light of justice,” the leaflet promised in Creole, the language of Haiti’s poor. “The warmth of reconciliation . . . with the return of President Aristide.”

They were “very nice leaflets,” a senior U.S. official said wistfully. Only one problem: “The wind changed, they got blown the wrong way and ended up in the water.”

In a massively orchestrated campaign of psychological warfare, the Clinton Administration has drawn on every weapon in its arsenal to push Haiti’s military dictators toward quitting--from leaflets and radio broadcasts to dispatching dozens of warships and thousands of troops.

U.S. patrol boats have darted near Haiti’s shores, and small aircraft have buzzed the capital of Port-au-Prince. Public and private messages have been sent to Haiti’s ruling generals saying that if they stay, they risk being captured and turned over to their enemy, Aristide.

In another effort to turn up the pressure--and build public support for an invasion--the White House announced that President Clinton will address the nation Thursday evening on Haiti.

And on Tuesday, rattling the biggest saber of all, the Navy sent the aircraft carrier America steaming toward the Caribbean to ferry Special Forces paratroops who would drop into Haiti to seize key facilities as part of an invasion.

The idea, officials have said, is to make the Haitian leaders “hear footsteps”--to convince them that after months of indecision, Clinton is serious about invading.

But as with the leaflets, psychological warfare is turning out to be a difficult and sometimes frustrating enterprise.

U.S. officials have been watching and listening closely for some sign that Haiti’s ruling generals are getting rattled--but the signs, they acknowledge, are still maddeningly inconclusive.

“We have some indications that they are beginning to focus on it,” a senior official said. “But they only really began to notice last week.”

The campaign is still escalating, officials said, hinting that the Haitians soon will be hit with more communications, including false radio messages and other signs of imminent invasions that will force them to stay on psychologically debilitating 24-hour alerts.

At the same time, the Administration plans to continue its very visible preparations for a real invasion, on the theory that only real deployments can convince the Haitian leaders that they face a real danger.

Those measures are expensive. Operating the America alone costs more than $1 million a day. But psychological warfare is cheaper than the real thing, officials noted.

“We think there’s a 50-50 chance” that the generals might give up without a fight, one senior official said.

Officials have said that all the parts of a U.S. invasion force would be in place by next Tuesday or Thursday, a timetable that seems to be holding true as more ships and combat troops are readied for the military operation.

Among the measures already taken:

* U.S. warships deliberately sailed within a few miles of Port-au-Prince and other Haitian towns over the weekend and sent helicopters and patrol boats even closer to the shore--drawing curious crowds and touching off new rumors of invasion.

* As the America left Norfolk, Va., with military support personnel assigned to the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps, Pentagon officials pointedly noted that its mission includes carrying the Special Forces units that would be used to seize airports and communications centers in Haiti in the moments before an invasion.

* The Army’s 18th Airborne Corps at Ft. Bragg, N.C., remains on alert and, according to Pentagon sources, would be the first ground troops of a force of about 20,000 to land in the island nation in an invasion.

* Eighteen hundred Marines assigned to the amphibious assault ship Wasp began ground exercises in Puerto Rico that included the firing of live rounds.

* Thirteen cargo ships are being readied at Eastern and Southern ports to carry heavy equipment and supplies to the region.

* The Dwight D. Eisenhower, another aircraft carrier, and the Mount Whitney, an amphibious command ship, are being reconfigured this week in preparation for service in Haiti.

* A light-infantry contingent of 2,000 from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division is being sent later this week aboard the Eisenhower to the Haiti shoreline, where the troops will wait “within eyesight” of the beach and conduct mop-up and peacekeeping operations on the island nation should any invasion take place.

Some senior U.S. military leaders consider the series of public announcements to be confusing, if not wrong, noting that conventional military wisdom holds secrecy as the greatest component of any invasion.

“We’ve done other buildups like this before and you wouldn’t even have known it,” one Pentagon official said. “But this one has been very public. It’s been saber rattling to the max. It’s brinkmanship.”

Others wonder if the stream of announcements is even getting through.

“Haitians don’t read our papers or see our TV,” a senior Pentagon planner said.

“Are we doing this just to scare them?” another official asked. “And what if, after putting all this hype out on the street, we don’t invade? (Military leader Lt. Gen. Raoul) Cedras is going to laugh at us.”