Customer Reviews

Papa Doc: Haiti and Its Dictator

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Wow.... This books depicts a harsh reality.. it is amazingly real, and accurate. I was born in Haiti and I am a witness to this reality. If you want to know about Haiti, and US policy read it. I enjoyed it.

The book is centrally about Francois Duvalier's presidency of Haiti which started in 1957. F. Duvalier died in power in 1971. It also summarizes events prior to Duvalier and even has a passage on Duvalier himself, which is rare. The details about Duvalier's rule and his most notorious creation--his parallel private army of Tontons Macoutes militia--are recounted with mastery.

Those who want an account of events since the 1970s will not be served here. Haiti has seen much change in the last 35 years and the influential personalities of the 50s and 60s are mostly out of the political scene now. For the serious student of Haiti, however, the penetrating account of Haitian society until the early 1970s contained here will serve as excellent background. Good historical bacground is generally a good idea, especially when figuring out a hard-to-fathom foreign land. Even 30-35 years later this book contributes well to a good grasp of Haiti in the 20th century.

"No one alive . . . is better qualified than Bernard Diederich to tell the horrifying story of Haiti under the rule of Dr. Fran?ois Duvalier. . . . What a story it is: tragic, terrifying, bizarre, even at times comic. Papa Doc sits in his bath wearing his top hat for meditating: the head of his enemy Philogenes stands on his desk: the hearse carrying another enemy's body is stolen by the Tonton Macoutes at the church door: the writer Alexis is stoned to death. . . . This is a very full account of Duvalier's reign which will be indispensable to future historians." -Graham Greene in the Foreword
"A detailed expose of the evil incarnate in Duvalier's rule. . . . Shakedowns of foreign businessmen, and their governments, are shown to be commonplace. . . . Torture . . . sometimes directed by the dictator himself . . . emerges as the cement to hold the police state together. . . . The frustrating counterpoint to this terror story is the tale of how Duvalier has undone United States policy and humiliated Washington." -Washington Post
"A truly revealing book." -St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Bernard Diederich was a correspondent for Time Magazine, covering Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. He has also written two other biographies of Latin American dictators. Al Burt was the longtime Latin America editor of the Miami Herald.
"Bernard Diederich and Al Burt chronicle in such detail and with such unpatronizing level-headedness in Papa Doc." -The New York Times