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Contrary Destinies: A Century of America's Occupation, Deoccupation, and Reoccupation of Haiti

Online ISBN:
9780813051291
Print ISBN:
9780813061023
Publisher:
University Press of Florida
Book

Contrary Destinies: A Century of America's Occupation, Deoccupation, and Reoccupation of Haiti

Leon D. Pamphile
Leon D. Pamphile
The Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti
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Published:
25 August 2015
Online ISBN:
9780813051291
Print ISBN:
9780813061023
Publisher:
University Press of Florida

Abstract

This book examines Haitian American relations from 1915 to 2015 in light of American control. In 1915 began the first American occupation of Haiti that lasted two decades enabling them to lay the foundation of control. In 1934 took place the Désoccupation or the second Haitian independence in tune with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Good Neighborhood policy. Yet American policies towards Haiti and the legacies of its first occupation have contributed to the gradual erosion of Haitian Independence culminating in a second occupation and the current UN peacekeeping mission. The ongoing American occupation of Haiti is markedly evident in three distinct areas: politics, economics, and culture. Politically, the Cold War led the United States to institute policies that are more in line with American national security interests than with Haitian independence. From 1957 to 1986, the United States supported, for instance, three decades of brutal dictatorship of the Duvalier dynasty. Haiti’s political sovereignty further declined during the American reoccupation for the purpose of reinstating President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Since 29 February 2004, United Nations forces of MINUSTAH have virtually maintained reoccupation. Economic dependency is related to politics. Over the past four decades, Haiti became more and more financially dependent on American foreign aid. With the aid came the obligation that the United States imposed a neo-liberal economic policy that has driven the country to a near socioeconomic disaster.

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