Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
countryside through a system of information, intelligence, and
command tied directly to the Presidential Palace. Both
Francois Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude, lacked military
experience; still, they managed to neutralize the army's influence
through intimidation, bribery, and political maneuvering.
The Duvaliers also managed to stave off a number of low-level
opposition plots and invasion attempts, mostly during the
1960s.
During the early 1960s, Francois Duvalier pursued measures
to overpower the mainstream military establishment, often by
ruthlessly eliminating or exiling any officers who opposed him.
The Military Academy, a professional and elitist institution that
represented a potential source of opposition to the regime, was
closed down in 1961. Officers who attempted to resist Duvalier
forfeited their careers. In 1963 Duvalier expelled the United
States military mission, which he had invited to Haiti in 1959;
Duvalier feared that the military-modernization values
imparted by United States instructors could lead to resistance
to the government's restructuring of the armed forces.
Although referred to as a militia, the VSN in fact became the
Duvaliers' front-line security force. As of early 1986, the organization
included more than 9,000 members and an informal circle
of thousands more. The VSN acted as a political cadre,
secret police, and instrument of terror. It played a crucial political
role for the regime, countering the influence of the armed
forces, historically the regime's primary source of power. The
VSN gained its deadly reputation in part because members
received no salary, although they took orders from the Presidential
Palace. They made their living, instead, through extortion
and petty crime. Rural members of the VSN, who wore
blue denim uniforms, had received some training from the
army, while the plainclothes members, identified by their
trademark dark glasses, served as Haiti's criminal investigation
force.
When Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") came to power in
1971, the country's security forces became less abusive, but they
still resorted to some brutality. During Jean-Claude's regime, a
realignment of power between the VSN and the armed forces
was achieved, ensuring him greater control over the nation's
security apparatus. Jean-Claude's half-hearted attempt to open
Haiti to the outside world and to qualify for renewed foreign
assistance from the United States suggested a need to restrain
the abuses of the VSN.
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