Papa Doc; The Truth About Haiti Today

New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Fair. xii, 393, [11] pages. Introduction by Graham Greene. Bernard Diederich (born 1926), is a New Zealand-born author, journalist, and historian. In 1949, Diederich came to Haiti. In Port-au-Prince, he founded and edited the Haiti Sun, a weekly English newspaper about Haitian events. As a journalist he also became a non-staff correspondent for a number of news media including the Associated Press, the New York Times, and the Daily Telegraph. In 1961 he covered the assassination of Rafael Trujillo in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Having displeased Haiti's dictator Papa Doc Duvalier, he was imprisoned and expelled. He established himself as a foreign staff correspondent for Time-Life News. He retired 1989 but continued to publish after retirement with the focus on the political and historical developments in the Caribbean, notably in Haiti. In 1954 Diederich met Graham Greene and the two became friends. Al Burt or, more fully, Alvin Victor Burt (September 11, 1927 - November 29, 2008) was an author and longtime journalist with The Miami Herald in Florida. Burt reported from Washington to Latin America and the Caribbean and throughout Florida. He was seriously wounded by "friendly fire" while covering the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965. François Duvalier (14 April 1907 - 21 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d'état in 1958, his regime rapidly became totalitarian and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute, killed opponents indiscriminately, and was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became fearful of expressing dissent, even in private. He consolidated his power, culminating in 1964 when he declared himself as President for Life, and remained in power until he died in 1971. Papa Doc is a horrifying account of Haiti under the rule of Dr. Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.