Haiti Through a Soldiers Eyes

Haiti Through a Soldiers Eyes

by Ben Woodruff

     When I read Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism by Mary Renda it was through the lens of a combat veteran of operations in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Renda spoke of how the issues of being in an occupying force influences the individual and then tied that back to how it reshaped the view of the nation. The quote on page 13 of General Butler that the US had become “The trustees of a huge estate that belongs to minors” mirrored actions recently of having J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. operating the Iraq Trade Bank. This paternalistic view is also present in Afghanistan after it was discovered that trillions of dollars’ worth of natural resources are present.

     The violence grew under this occupation. It was not just the power of the US Marines but the resistance to that power by the Haitians that transformed the nation. The Marines had a view of what it meant to be a white American man.

     This masculinity was challenged back in the United States by a growing women’s movement. This attack on the sense of self was in some way assuaged by the strict hierarchy of the military. Solders had been conscripted and then were taught about this highly structured chain of command. This clear sense of their place allowed them to assert this power through military might allowing them to "reclaim" some lost masculinity.

     As they asserted this power, the Marines saw themselves as fathers to these child like natives. The fact that the racial lines were so strict, combined with the separation in education and class, just made it easier for the Marines to have an attitude of being better and therefore naturally in command. The fact that so many Marines came from a working class background gave them a rare opportunity to assert power. 

     This paternalism was found back in the United States as well. Haitians were viewed similar to the way African Americans were and therefore were seen as requiring a similar guidance to develop. The fact that Haiti was primarily engaged in subsistence agriculture and not agriculture for export or industry further made them seem backward. This view of the Haitians needing the United States to intervene was why the Haitian Gendarmerie was established. 

     General Butler  as the leader of the Gendarmerie was required to organize the unit, bringing Haitians into working with the Marines in Haitian uniforms. Even though they had taken on the trappings of an indigenous military, the white skin and bearing served to keep a strong separation between the officers and the enlisted men. On page 101 a quote of Butler speaking highly of the Haitians was with the caveat "as long as white men lead them".

     This view of the US military leading the soldiers from other countries is still strong in the Western Hemisphere today. When US Special Forces perform the action of Foreign Direct Intervention it is similarly US Military, predominantly white, leading indigenous forces for what are ultimately US goals.