Eyewitness to Chaos ― Personal Accounts of the Intervention in Haiti, 1994

In mid-September of 1994, a large U.S. invasion force converged on the island nation of Haiti. Years of diplomatic efforts, secret government planning, and military rehearsals on the parts of the U.S. and U.N. had failed to restore Haiti’s democratically-elected, junta-deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to office, and now, invasion was imminent. Poised for action and mere minutes from striking, military commanders were stunned when President Clinton announced a drastic change of plan: the combat mission to eradicate a junta by force was now a peaceful cooperation with an illegal government.

In Operation Uphold Democracy: An Oral History of the 1994 United States Intervention in Haiti, Walter E. Kretchik recounts the experience of this unprecedented and arguably most convoluted of military operations in American history through the voices of its participants. Synthesizing accounts from a cross section of military officials, Kretchik paints a picture of the little known inner workings of government and military planning and the real-world quandaries of operational execution faced by those involved. These 37 oral histories provide insight into the many facets of the operation: strategic and operational planning, intelligence gathering, multinational force design, medical and legal complications, communication concerns, contracting and logistics, ethnic, cultural, and historical considerations, mission execution, and language barriers. What emerges is a new perspective on this multifaceted attempt to secure a brighter future for Haiti’s people.