1930, 1958–1969, 1970: (Chapter 14 Footnotes — The International Dimensions: The Marine Mission’s Real Orders of January 1959, Barbot’s Overtures Rejected by…

1930, 1958–1969, 1970: (Chapter 14 Footnotes — The International Dimensions: The Marine Mission’s Real Orders of January 1959, Barbot’s Overtures Rejected by Washington in 1960, the Haitian Press as Daily Pamphlets, Cromwell James Beaten to Death in 1960, the Kennedy Aid Cutoff Converted to a $15.2 Million Sham by 1968, and Radio Vonvon Silenced After Rockefeller’s 1969 Visit): The nearest thing to a specific mission statement ever given to the Marines’ commander came from a State Department deputy under-secretary in January 1959: the most important way you can support our objectives in Haiti is to help keep Duvalier in power so he can serve out his full term in office and — after a portentous pause — maybe a little longer than that if everything works out. Barbot, despite his overtures to U.S. officials from early 1960, telling of bizarre scenes inside the palace and warning that Duvalier had never been the same man since his heart attack and prolonged coma, was told that Washington was determined to support constitutional governments, even Duvalier’s, and that Barbot’s terrorist past would make him difficult if not impossible to recognize, let alone support. The Haitian press could hardly be considered a national institution: as of 1969, Haiti had but six daily papers of all stripes aggregating 25,000 circulation, the largest being Le Nouvelliste at 6,000 — the British minister had written as early as 1930 that the tone of Le Nouvelliste was one of the most glaring indictments of the Haitian elite, and that newspapers were merely daily pamphlets for or against the government; forty years later nothing had changed except that only the government side appeared. Cromwell James, a Jamaican storekeeper over sixty, who had objected to government shakedowns, was arrested, held incommunicado, and mercilessly beaten; released after British embassy intervention in November 1960, he died of gangrene from hideous uncared-for wounds. The Kennedy aid cutoff proved a sham: an AID representative told a congressional subcommittee in March 1969 that AID was currently providing far more assistance to Haiti than seemed to be generally realized — in 1964–1968 AID had given $15.2 million, all grants of course. The tourist trade, which in 1958–1959 had brought Haiti $5 million, dwindled by 1965–1966 to $500,000; of 1,200 tourist rooms in the country’s hotels, only 400 were operated, let alone occupied, and empty hotels were looted of furniture and air conditioners. Within a fortnight of Rockefeller’s July 1969 visit, Radio Vonvon was silenced and Combattant forced to suspend; eight months later, with U.S. blessing, the international economic blockade against Duvalier officially ended. The United States eventually returned the Cayard ships to Haiti after appreciable U.S.-funded repairs, at which point Duvalier erased the faithless Garde-Côtes by a stroke of his pen on October 8, 1970, redesignating the revived force La Marine Haïtienne — the Haitian Navy.