THE USS HARLAN COUNTY INCIDENT October 1993: PSYOPS in Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, 1994-1995

In mid-1993, there was cautious optimism about the chances for political resolution in Haiti. President-in-exile Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the de facto leader of Haiti, Lieutenant General (LTG) Raoul Cédras, had recently signed an agreement to have Aristide return to the presidency on 30 October. However, the situation soon deteriorated. On 6 October, the USS Harlan County (LST-1196) set out for Port-au-Prince with 200 U.S. and United Nations troops on board to train Haitian armed forces and conduct “civil assistance projects.” Two days later, armed Haitian mobs on shore prevented the Harlan County from docking, forcing the ship to turn back. Cédras supporters taunted the U.S. by threatening to turn Haiti into “Another Somalia” (a reference to the recent bloody battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, the historical basis for Black Hawk Down). The emboldened Cédras reneged on the July agreement and refused to allow Aristide to return. The ‘Harlan County incident’ was regarded as an insult to the U.S. and U.N. It was a devastating blow to international efforts to mend the political turmoil in Haiti.

Psychological Operations in 
Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, 1994-1995

by Jared M. Tracy, PhD Veritas, Army official journal

“Without a doubt, PSYOP won the hearts and minds of Haiti’s citizens, as well as [set] the stage for the peaceful accomplishment of the [JTF’s] mission. There is no question PSYOP saved lives, on both sides, during Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY. It proved to be the unsung, yet vitally important, factor in this operation—a true force multiplier.”

— LTG Henry H. Shelton

On 5 May 1995, Lieutenant General (LTG) Henry H. Shelton, commander of XVIII Airborne Corps and Joint Task Force (JTF)-180, praised the recent accomplishments of Army psychological operations (PSYOP) in Haiti during Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY. “Without a doubt, PSYOP won the hearts and minds of Haiti’s citizens, as well as [set] the stage for the peaceful accomplishment of the [JTF] mission. There is no question PSYOP saved lives, on both sides, during Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY. It proved to be the unsung, yet vitally important, factor in this operation—a true force multiplier.”¹ This article explains how PSYOP earned such praise.

Between September 1994 and March 1995, active component and U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) PSYOP units utilized leaflets, loudspeakers, and radio broadcasts to support U.S. and international efforts in Haiti. They also interacted closely with the populace, offering Haitians a positive, non-threatening view of the U.S. intervention. Overseen by the JTF-190/Multinational Force-Haiti (MNF-H) Joint Psychological Operations Task Force (JPOTF) based in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, the PSYOP effort advanced numerous themes during UPHOLD DEMOCRACY. These included Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s return to power on 15 October 1995, quelling Haitian-on-Haitian violence, weapons turn-in programs, and public health and safety announcements. Supporting both conventional and Special Forces (SF) units, PSYOP soldiers helped prevent a bloody conflict and fostered the peaceful return to democracy in Haiti.

After explaining the basis of the operation, this article will describe the organization and major themes of PSYOP in Haiti. It will also detail the efforts of several Brigade PSYOP Support Elements (BPSEs) and Tactical PSYOP Teams (TPTs) in order to explain tactical PSYOP in Port-au-Prince, the northern coastal city of Cap-Haïtien, and other locations. While there were other tactical PSYOP elements in Haiti, the BPSEs and TPTs chronicled in this article were selected because of the abundance of sources on them and because their efforts adequately represent the overall tactical PSYOP campaign during Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY.

Sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and with primary planning oversight by the U.S. Atlantic Command (USACOM), Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY stemmed from a longstanding political crisis in Haiti.² In September 1991, three years before the operation, the head of the Forces Armées d’Haiti ([FAd’H] Armed Forces of Haiti), LTG Raoul Cédras, led a successful military coup against President Aristide, who fled to the U.S. Cédras and his allies retained power through bribery, intimidation, imprisonment, and murder. The military takeover exacerbated the already poor living standards of the six million Haitians. The best that the average citizen could expect was a couple hours of electricity and an hour of running, non-potable water a day. The state of sanitation, transportation, and infrastructure was abysmal. Crime and disease ran rampant, especially in cities.³

PSYOP DUIs

All of these factors precipitated a refugee crisis. U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton repatriated refugees to elsewhere. The situation in Haiti prompted widespread international outcries, leading the UNSC to impose economic sanctions and consider military action to remove Cédras. However, in July 1993, Cédras and Aristide signed the Governor’s Island (New York) Accord to restore the president to power on 30 October. The UN lifted sanctions because political resolution seemed probable, but that optimism proved short lived.⁴ In late 1993, Cédras’ supporters established the Front pour l’Avancement et le Progrèss Haitien ([FRAPH] Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti) and stepped up attacks on Aristide supporters. Cédras reneged on the Governor’s Accord, causing the UN and U.S. to impose new sanctions. On 31 July 1994, UNSC Resolution 940 authorized the use of military force to remove Cédras (the de facto leader of Haiti) and the puppet provisional president, Émile Jonassaint. In addition, Aristide was to be restored to the presidency. Having already begun planning, USACOM, its rapid deployment force, XVIII Airborne Corps, and other U.S. military forces stepped up their preparations for a forced entry mission.⁵