Continued Deterioration

The scene at Miami International Air port was sadly familiar. A Pan American DC-6B rolled to a halt, and TV cameras panned in as 115 refugees filed from the plane. But these passengers were from Franc, Duvalier's Haiti -- not Castro's Cuba--and they were the first of 1,300 U.S. citizens advised by the State Department to leave because of continued deterioration on the small Caribbean island. In a week of urgent diplomatic maneuver and in an atmosphere of violence and vengeance, everyone waited to see whether the dictator who calls himself "Papa Doc" would fall, and in falling bring on another of the blood baths that have marked the small Negro republic's history. In his white Port-au-Prince palace. Duvalier clung to power, guarded by his Tonton Macoute hoodlums. There was sporadic fighting between Duvalier's men and the emboldened opposition, and dark rumors of many deaths. Diplomatically, the arguments turned on the safety of 103 Haitians who had taken asylum at Latin American embassies in the capital, and had not been permitted safe conduct out of the country. In the neighboring Dominican Republic, President Juan Bosch threatened military action unless the refugees in the Dominican embassy were allowed to leave Haiti. Dominican and Haitian troops faced each other across the dirt road that cuts through the green hills along the border. Under such pressure Duvalier finally relented and at week's end allowed the asylees to begin flying out of Haiti. Color Line. With most Latin American nations standing against him, Duvalier sent an emissary flying to Manhattan to plead his case before the United Nations Security Council. Haiti's Foreign Minister Rene Chalmers pictured poor Negro Haiti as surrounded on all sides by enemies. "The Haitian people are determined to defend their sovereignty and independence, and in so doing they are defending the cause of the black peoples," said Chalmers. "The independence of the only black nation in America must be safeguarded." The Russians used the occasion to work up anti-Yankee propaganda, but Haiti's appeal to the Afro-Asian bloc fell flat, and the Security Council bucked the issue back to the Organization of American States. The OAS voted to send a second peacemaking group to Hispaniola with a broader mandate to keep peace on the explosive island and pressed Haiti to guarantee the safety of opposition Haitians. Under the OAS Banner. The U.S. plans to "proceed in company with the OAS," said President Kennedy last week, and would consider sanctions on Haiti only if present negotiations failed. A task force, with U.S. Marines aboard, maneuvered in the Gulf of Gonaives within sight of Haiti's dun-colored mountains. Helicopters from the carrier Boxer could put them ashore in minutes. Yet the U.S. is anxious to avoid any unilateral intervention that would inevitably revive memories of the 1915-34 U.S. Marine occupation of Haiti. If intervention is required--to protect foreign nationals or to prevent a bloody war--U.S. Marines will go ashore but only, Washington made clear, with OAS approval and under the OAS banner.

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