1964–1966: (The Pope’s Journey to Canossa: Johnson’s Cool and Correct, the Régie du Tabac’s $10 Million in Nonfiscal Accounts, the Vatican Concordat, and the…

1964–1966: (The Pope’s Journey to Canossa: Johnson’s Cool and Correct, the Régie du Tabac’s $10 Million in Nonfiscal Accounts, the Vatican Concordat, and the Haitian Episcopacy — Where Even Soulouque Had Failed, Duvalier Had Prevailed): On May 22, 1964, for the first time since 1960, an American ambassador was in Port-au-Prince — Ambassador Timmons felicitated the président-à-vie on his ascension, and Lyndon Johnson told the new Haitian ambassador that his government looked forward to close cooperation with Haiti. The Kennedy economic cold war was thus allowed to thaw — the Inter-American Development Bank found $2.6 million for waterworks repairs, the Navy resumed liberty visits. Even while taking in foreign aid exceeding $5 million a year, Duvalier was collecting about $10 million annually in the malodorous nonfiscal accounts originated by Estimé — the Régie du Tabac had extended its original monopoly to cement, dental products, air conditioners, flour, sugar, condensed milk, automobiles, textiles, alcohols, perfumes, matches, and electronic equipment, the money flowing to bagman Clémard-Joseph Charles’s Banque Commerciale. No nation or agency ever openly challenged the nonfiscal accounts during Duvalier’s presidency. In late 1965, through negotiations entrusted to Adrien Raymond, Duvalier intimated to the Vatican that the time had come to patch things up — his price was an end to the centuries-old ecclesiastical colonialism of France over the Catholic Church in Haiti, specifically a Haitian Episcopacy. Pope Paul VI acceded; on August 15, 1966, a protocol accepted Duvalier’s nominations for a native hierarchy, withdrew decrees of expulsion against the three bishops but not the Jesuits, and returned a nuncio to Port-au-Prince. The excommunication was lifted. Henceforth, conspicuous behind the president’s desk — was it an icon or was it a trophy? — there would stand a silver-framed inscribed photo of the Supreme Pontiff. This time the holy oil truly came from Rome, not Marseilles. Where even Soulouque had failed, Duvalier had prevailed — any noir altar boy might henceforth aspire to the archbishop’s miter, and never again would a French blan stand between Haitians and the throne of Bondyé.