Office of the Historian

420. Telegram 97589 From the Department of State to the Embassy in Haiti1

Washington, April 22, 1976, 0443Z.

97589. Subject: Plan of Haitian Anti-GOH Plotting. Ref.: Port-au-Prince 1019.

1. We concur with your analysis of the situation and the implications for the USG. As you recommend, you should alert Duvalier to the gist of our latest report, avoiding specifics, particularly names.

2. We are impressed by your sobering estimate of GOH progress in overcoming basic developmental and political problems. In particular we are distressed by your reading of the recent Cabinet changes.

3. We certainly agree that Duvalier should be told the survival of his government as well as its reputation abroad will ultimately depend on real economic progress and real political reform. We leave it to your judgment how and when this message can best be conveyed. We wonder, however, if the coup plot is the best context in which to deliver such unpalatable home truths. Might not Duvalier misread the comment, taking it as a threat or even as a hint of U.S. tacit involvement should he fail to improve the performance of his government in future?

Kissinger

  1. Summary: The Department instructed the Embassy to provide Duvalier with information on the latest reports of coup plotting but asked if it might not be preferable to await some other opportunity to suggest that he undertake reform efforts, inasmuch as such a comment might be interpreted as a threat if delivered in conjunction with a warning about imminent danger to the regime.

    Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D760152–0228. Secret; Niact Immediate; Stadis; Exdis. Drafted by Heavner and approved by Luers. In telegram 1035 from Port-au-Prince, April 22, Isham reported that he had shared information on the coup plot with Duvalier on April 21 but had “limited himself to essentials,” not making the “additional observations I had proposed to make.” (Ibid., D760152–1130) In telegram 1045 from Port-au-Prince, April 23, Isham reported that he “would seek a more propitious opportunity” to deliver a message about the importance of Haitian Government attention to the country’s problems. (Ibid., D760155–0973) Telegram 1019 from Port-au-Prince is Document 419.

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