Office of the Historian

HA–6. Memorandum of a Conversation, the White House1

Washington, August 7, 1958

SUBJECT

  • Call of Haitian Foreign Minister on the President

PARTICIPANTS

  • The President
  • Dr. Louis Mars, Foreign Minister of Haiti
  • Under Secretary Herter
  • William A. Wieland, Director, Office of Middle American Affairs

During a call at 4 p.m., August 7, on the President, Haitian Foreign Minister Mars delivered a letter from President Duvalier saying that the Haitian Government hopes for United States military support.2 He recalled the efforts to overthrow President Duvalier during the last days of July and said the Government expects further revolutionary attempts.

The President asked the Foreign Minister to convey his sincere regrets to President Duvalier that United States citizens had been involved in the plot and that the United States Government had not known this in time to stop it.

In reply to a question from the President, the Foreign Minister said that the revolutionary plotting against the Duvalier Government has assumed serious proportions. He cited two clandestine radio stations broadcasting threats that the Presidential Palace will be bombed and 2,000 rebels will march on the capital. He said that President Duvalier has “knowledge” that President Trujillo of the Dominican Republic is financing the revolutionary attempts with a $500,000 fund established for the purpose. The Foreign Minister said that President Trujillo aspires “to be President of the entire island” and “does not like” that the Duvalier Government is attempting to build a sound economy in Haiti.

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President Eisenhower said that President Duvalier’s appeal would be studied by the State Department and other appropriate agencies. The President said that he understood the Department of Justice is now investigating the facts of the recent plotting in the United States against the Haitian Government. Under Secretary Herter corroborated this.

The President said he was meanwhile preparing a greeting to President Duvalier in response to his letter to him.

On leaving, the Foreign Minister left a previously prepared summary of his intended remarks with the President, in addition to a letter from President Duvalier.3

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Confidential. Drafted by Wieland.
    In a memorandum to President Eisenhower of August 7, Acting Secretary of State Herter recommended that the President meet with Foreign Minister Mars as it was “highly desirable that you receive the Foreign Minister in order to dispel any impression that we countenance the organization of revolutionary expeditions in the United States against Dr. Duvalier’s government.” (Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers)    ↩
  2. In this letter of August 2, President Duvalier maintained that the attack on Haiti of July 28–29 was part of an international Communist conspiracy and requested U.S. military assistance to help defend Haitian territory. An unofficial translation of the letter is in the Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File.↩
  3. The summary, not printed, is attached to the unofficial translation of Duvalier’s letter of August 2.
    In a letter to President Duvalier of August 8, President Eisenhower affirmed that “the United States deplores the involvement of its citizens in the revolutionary attempt against your Government on July 29, 1958, and appropriate agencies of this Government are conducting an inquiry to determine what violations of United States laws may have occurred.” In regard to Duvalier’s request for military assistance, President Eisenhower indicated that he had asked the Department of State and other U.S. government agencies to give urgent and careful study to the matter. (Presidential Correspondence, Lot 64 D 174)    ↩