Why America Invaded Haiti: Wilson Sends in the Marines

Part of Woodrow Wilson's campaign for president in 1913 included a public repudiation of William Taft's so-called "Dollar Diplomacy," yet within a few years Wilson would find it necessary to send American Marines to secure the tiny island nation of Haiti after U.S. financial interests had taken root there.

For years Haiti had endured annual revolutions that had simply become the way government was run. This state of organized instability in was the norm in Haiti for many years and during this strange cycle Haiti had failed to develop infrastructure and had incurred European debt. The nation went bankrupt, which frustrated the foreign owners of the Banque Nationale de la Republique d'Haiti and created a situation that would test America's Monroe Doctrine.

U.S. Secretary of State Philander Knox put together a Wall Street Consortium led by National City and purchased a controlling share in the Banque Nationale of Haiti in order to muscle aside the European owners.¹ It was hoped that this would reduce tensions and the ease the temptation that Europe might feel to intervene.

Despite condemning Dollar Diplomacy prior to election, Wilson himself would continue it. Both Wilson and Taft believed that financial rehabilitation would lead to prosperity and stability in Haiti and prevent further crises. As a result U.S. citizens obtained rights to copper mines as well as the rights to construct a national road and railway system. Problematic for the people of Haiti was the fact that United States citizens now controlled key infrastructure instead of native Haitians. Naturally this would lead to resentment.

On the surface it would appear that the U.S. was simply allowing the flag to follow the dollar, but in reality the U.S. only secured shares of various industries out of fear of European pressure and involvement. American policy during the 1910s could be summed up easily: America's foreign policy was to get involved wherever there was a possibility of Europeans gaining any influence and to take that possibility away.

The US Invasion of Haiti

When a violent revolt broke out on the island nation, Wilson had no choice but to send in the Marines. Those in Wilson's cabinet feared that Britain or France would try to gain a foothold in Haiti, violating the Monroe Doctrine which had become almost holy to many in the foreign policy establishment. There was also a fear that with World War I raging on the European Continent that the large contingent of Germans in Haiti would try to gain power as well. To Wilson and the American government, having Haiti fall apart or fall prey to a European nation was a turn of events that could not be accepted. Strategically located near the vital Panama Canal, American Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Carter would frequently intervene in the Caribbean in order to secure that Canal Zone.

Unfortunately, the U.S. occupation of Haiti would be long and expensive, draining Americans of the desire to intervene in the world. Wilson's original intention of securing Haiti had succeeded by the end, though his dream of bringing democracy there would fail due to American control of many aspects of Haitian government. Admiral Caperton, the virtual ruler of Haiti during the occupation, betrayed American intentions when he announced that "Next Tuesday...I will permit Congress to elect a President."² The occupation would last for years, with President Herbert Hoover speeding up the withdrawal process in the early 1930s. The last American Marine would not leave Haiti until 1934 when a dynamic Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House and the "Good Neighbor" policy was in full swing.

Sources:

¹Max Boot, The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power (New York: Basic Books, 2002), 162.

²Bailey, Thomas A., A Diplomatic History of the American People (New York: Meredith Corporation, 1968), 499.