[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2300]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            HAITI'S HISTORY

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as President Bush makes his decision 
about sending troops to Haiti, I wish that he would look at Haiti's 
history and would look at the history of our relationship with Haiti.
  210 years ago, Haiti was a nation as wealthy as the 13 Colonies. 
After a slave revolt, Haiti in the early part of the next century, in 
1804, proclaimed its independence. Our government, a country with slave 
owners, would not recognize the government of Haiti, a country where 
slaves were now running the government, running the country, former 
slaves. We did not recognize them for more than 50 years; and then, Mr. 
Speaker, the United States Marines, in the early part of this century, 
occupied Haiti.
  Some years later, when Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier were in power 
in Haiti, U.S. interests funded and propped his government up, a bloody 
dictatorship. So now that President Aristide is in power, Mr. Speaker, 
we need to recognize this democracy. We have to deal with that as a 
democracy of equals.

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