Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 5, 1993 TAG: 9404220002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bonham C. Richardson
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The display commemorated the 200th anniversary of the slave rebellion that led to freedom from France. As well as paintings of the earliest revolutionaries, such as Toussaint Louverture, the artists included a painting of Charlemagne Peralte.
Peralte was the martyred leader of the resistance against the American marines' occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934. Although killed by the Americans in l919, his memory inspired others well after his death. The marines, anxious to publicize Peralte's death, photographed his propped-up corpse and unwittingly distributed copies of the picture throughout the countryside. The photo actually resembled a Christ-like figure, thereby intensifying resistance.
The marines also occupied the Dominican Republic, which shares Hispaniola with Haiti, from 1916 to 1924. In both countries they fought irregular forces using hit-and-run tactics on familiar terrain. Americans controlled the countryside during the day, only to relinquish it at night when they withdrew into protected compounds. In both countries, frustrated by shadowy opponents they never could pin down, the marines committed atrocities that alienated non-combatants.
The marines withdrew from Hispaniola without clear-cut victories in either country. And potentially valuable lessons might have been learned in the Caribbean about taking on guerilla forces on their home turf. The 1960s and 1970s in American history may have been altogether different had we valued the lessons of Hispaniola decades earlier.
But were those lessons ever really learned? Haiti is not Grenada. It has 50 times more people on 11,000 square miles, much of it broken, mountainous terrain. And those US politicians who would forcibly reorient Haitian politics to their liking might recall that our presence there decades ago galvanized nearly all segments of the local populace against us.
History lives in the Greater Antilles and often inspires action. When Fidel Castro was exiled to Mexico from Cuba in 1955 he vowed to return armed with the spirit "Of '68 and '95." He was referring to the Cuban wars of independence against Spain that began in 1868 and 1895. We all know how easily this historically-inspired fury was redirected toward the United States.
An apparent pitfall in the conduct of US foreign policy is the tyranny of the present. Late in 1993, Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti all seem interrelated and cry out for immediate action. Yet the old saws about ignoring history seem particularly appropriate now.
If we make decisions about Haiti today based solely on our feelings about President-elect Aristide versus General Cedras, we may soon find ourselves haunted -- once again -- by Charlemagne Peralte.
Bonham C. Richardson teaches geography at Virginia Tech. His most recent book, The Caribbean in the Wider World, 1492-1992, was published last year by Cambridge University Press.
by CNB