Haiti's 'second independence' and the promise of pan-American cooperation, 1934--1956

On August 14, 1934, Haitians celebrated the dawn of their nation's "Second Independence"---the end of the United States' nineteen-year occupation of the Caribbean nation. However, the departure of U.S. military officials from Haiti did not end the United States' involvement in Haitian affairs. Indeed, as this dissertation shows, ties between Haiti and the U.S. were cemented and expanded during the post-occupation period. Individuals from Haiti and the U.S. became increasingly familiar with one another. They made efforts to re-conceptualize and re-structure their relationships with one another. They traveled with increasing frequency to the other's country. And, they collaborated to address factors that they considered to be obstacles to Haiti's national progress and international status. This culture of cooperation was primarily due to the prominence and wide-ranging influence of Pan-American ideals during the mid-twentieth century. This multivalent political ideology was rooted in memories about a shared history between the United States, Canada, the independent nations of the Caribbean and Latin America; and, it stressed the equality and interdependence of the Americas, regardless of race, culture or economic status. Inspired by the promise of these ideals, individuals from Haiti and the United States engaged in programs of cooperation as a strategy for fulfilling the revolutionary and nation-building ideals that Haitians struggled to achieve since their independence from France in 1804. In this dissertation, I examine four types of projects to discuss the culture of cooperation emerging out of the legacies of the U.S. military occupation and the evolution of Haiti-U.S. relations between 1934 and 1956. These projects are: (1) The effort to re-conceptualize Haiti's diplomatic ties to the United States; (2) The attempt to promote intellectual cooperation between Haiti and the U.S.; (3) The effort to modernize Haiti's religious mores; and, (4) The project of stimulating change through the creation of a community-based development model. I draw on a body of evidence from archives in Haiti and the United States including the correspondence of Haitian Presidents Stenio Vincent and Elie Lescot, the papers of Maurice Dartigue and Jean Price-Mars, and reports from individuals working on missions to Haiti sponsored by the Office of Inter-American Affairs, Rockefeller Foundation, Baha'i Inter-America Teaching Campaign, and UNESCO. These sources are complemented by oral histories and writings printed in contemporary periodicals. The testimonies of public officials, intellectuals, prominent and not-so-prominent citizens from these sources offer some insights on the transnational nature of nation-building and international relations in the Americas. This dissertation, then, serves in part to help us understand the pre-history of the Haitian Diaspora's dramatic expansion to the United States during the 1960s, and the on-going transnational struggle to establish mutually-beneficial ties between Haiti and the United States during the twenty-first century.