The Foreign Service Journal, March 2007

84 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 7 Plus Ça Change … Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution Gordon S. Brown, University Press of Mississippi, 2005, $32.00, hardcover, 321 pages. Plunging into Haiti: Clinton, Aristide and the Defeat of Diplomacy Ralph Pezzullo, University Press of Mississippi, 2006, $45.00, hardcover, 312 pages. R EVIEWED BY R ICHARD M C K EE The dust jackets of these two fine diplomatic histories bear similar illus- trations. A heroic Toussaint L’Ouver- ture, elegantly dressed and wielding an epée, leads ragtag insurgents; 200 years later, a stern Haitian soldier in camouflage uniform and mirrored sunglasses, holding a machine gun, restrains demonstrators. The images reflect the constants of Haitian life that American diplomats confront in both these books: race, violence and poverty. In Toussaint’s Clause: The Found- ing Fathers and the Haitian Revolu- tion , retired Ambassador Gordon Brown concentrates on three linked revolutions from the late 18th and early 19th centuries: the primarily political American war for indepen- dence from England; the political and social French upheaval of a decade later; and the Haitians’ violent racial struggle for political and social equali- ty and independence from France. He draws on diplomatic dispatches, debates in Congress and the French Assembly, private correspondence and newspapers to delineate the domestic tensions that influenced the American, French and Haitian lead- ers’ decisions. As he explains, the leaders of the weak new American republic sought to avoid entanglement in the ongoing conflict between Britain and France while protecting U.S. commerce, par- ticularly the immensely lucrative exchange of American staples for Haitian sugar. Americans’ empathy for the Haitians, admiration for Toussaint and hope for commercial gain were all greatly tempered by reports of the slaughter of the white colonial elite, and fear that such an example would influence slaves in the southern states. To prevent and protest French seizures of American merchantmen, the United States embargoed all com- merce with France and its territories while inserting a loophole (popularly known as Toussaint’s Clause) authoriz- ing the president to suspend the embargo where trade was deemed safe — i.e., with Haiti. Brown reminds us that the United States owes much to the rebels: by frustrat- ing Napoleon’s attempt to reoccupy Haiti, they precluded the landing of French forces at New Orleans, facili- tating the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. A few years later, Haiti was politi- cally free, economically devastated, and of minimal interest to the U.S. It would take more than half a century before Abraham Lincoln established diplomatic relations with the black republic following the southern states’ secession. Another half-century on, in 1915, Woodrow Wilson sent Marines to occupy corruption-ridden, bank- rupt Haiti; Franklin Roosevelt with- drew them in 1934. Although Haitians resented rule by foreign blancs (whites), they would later recall nostalgically the domestic tranquility their presence had fostered. For his part, Ralph Pezzullo recounts the Clinton administration’s efforts to forge agreements among Haitian leaders to permit democrati- cally elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted and exiled by a mili- tary coup, to regain and retain power peacefully in 1994. The author’s pri- mary sources are his father, Lawrence Pezzullo, Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s special envoy; Amb. Pezzullo’s deputy, FSO Michael Ko- zak; Argentine diplomat Dante Cap- B OOKS Both books are well worth the time of anyone who is interested in Latin American history.