THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9410010003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
After all other questions are put aside, the only real question on Haiti is whether intervention there is in our national interest.
Under the Monroe Doctrine, this nation set itself as overseer of fragile democracies of this hemisphere. We've never let loose of that one notion.
We've propped up corrupt governments in Cuba, El Salvador and Chile.
We've invaded, in one way or another, at one time or another, the sovereignties of Grenada, Panama, Columbia and Peru.
More recently, under President Reagan's Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), we have invested resources, dollars and ideologies into selected isles of the Caribbean in the interests of trade, commerce and political alliance.
We train and arm one-third of the police forces in the Caribbean.
We protect the shipping lanes, which is why fleeing boats and rafts get such swift attention from our Navy and our Coast Guard.
Our interests in the Caribbean are unmistakably intertwined with the CBI. To say we have no interests in Haiti is to deny two centuries of behavior in every administration from Jefferson to Clinton. Our history with Haiti is as old as our nation.
We supported French colonization over the Spanish.
The port of Norfolk gladly welcomed refugees fleeing the Slave Revolt of General Toussaint L'Ouverture in the 1800s.
U.S. troops occupied Haiti for 19 years early in this century to stop political violence there.
Afterward, we supported the repressive Duvaliers.
Then, under President Bush, we finally recognized the free and open election of President Aristide.
The Clinton administration is now acting to uphold national interests that have been defined over decades of policy by scores of administrations. Our ongoing interest is the human-rights issue that this nation installed in the initial U.N. Charter.
Our current domestic interest is concern over the continued refugee burden placed on Florida.
We are right to assist democracy in Haiti. It is in our own interest, and in the interest of the Americas.
A seed of democracy has been planted in Haiti. Let us hope that today's partisanship doesn't kill seedlings.
E. LEE JOHNSON
Norfolk, Sept. 17, 1994 by CNB