Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXXII, Dominican Republic; Cuba; Haiti; Guyana

337. Memorandum From Robert M. Sayre of the National Security Council Staff to the Presidentʼs Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)¹

Washington, December 30, 1964.

SUBJECT

• Haiti

Both the New York Times and the Herald Tribune are giving particular attention to the smuggling of arms into Haiti.² The arrival of two T–28ʼs in Haiti earlier this year in the face of a ban of export licenses is what whetted their curiosity. Szulc and Collier have apparently been working together. They tried to develop the thesis with the Director of Caribbean Affairs that the United States Government was conspiring with Duvalier to provide arms, despite the fact that we refused an export license. They apparently gave this up as a bad theory, but are now on the tangent that the Department of State and CIA are preventing prosecution because they are unwilling to let a key witness testify. This witness can apparently testify to the fact that the aircraft in Haiti are in fact the ones smuggled out of Florida.

[1 paragraph (3 lines of source text) not declassified]

Mann feels that the emphasis which the two papers are giving to the story indicates a new effort on their part to revive the dictator-democracy issues. He regards our present policy as perfectly defensible. We have done everything we can to prevent arms shipments to Haiti, including obtaining an arms embargo by all the Europeans, which is effective. Although Mann regards Duvalier as the worst dictator in the Hemisphere, and would be happy to see him go, no one has suggested any way to do it except by force. Mann regards this an unacceptable course. Even if this were done, no one has a satisfactory alternative in prospect. Haiti has never had a reasonably decent government, even by Latin standards. Some, like Duvalier, are just worse than others.

RMS

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Haiti, Vol. IV. Secret.
2. Mann called Valenti on December 28 about the two newspapersʼ articles and said that he had learned from a journalist friend that the “whole Haiti story was leaked by Justice.” Mann added that “the newspaper people had tried to sell the idea that Duvalier was promised help in return for Haitiʼs vote at the July OAS meeting so this was why they could get T–28s from us. This was not true at all.” (Ibid., Papers of Thomas C. Mann, Telephone Conversations with LBJ, January 4, 1964–April 30, 1965)