Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project MICHAEL NORTON Interviewed by: Daniel Whitman Initial Interview Date: September 6, 2007 Copyright 2007 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in Minnesota Hamline niversity" niversity of Chicago, niversity of Minnesota and the niversity of Wisconsin Travel and private sector work in France, Haiti, Martini(ue, Dominican Republic and Ireland ,ewish life, family, religion and environment Wife Haitian Black -isting Haiti 1.7011.20 Wife Black listing Papa Doc Duvalier ousted Martini(ue" Teacher of English as a foreign language 1.20, 1.25 Environment Political atmosphere Elections -ife, -iberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Haiti" Radio News Reporter 1.2510003 8overnment changes Economy Environment Haitian military Foreign Embassies Constituent Assembly Constitution ,ean Domini(ue Culture Creole Aristide victory 1 9idnappings Marc Ba:in Haiti: Aristide Regime" Radio News Reporter: BBC and AP 000310004 nanimity for Aristide Individual violence Dangers in honest reporting Pervasive corruption Reporting as Political Activist Criticism of Capitalism Constitution and Political Parties Aristide: =Please Sir. Do not take away our power. It is our Dignity? Nature of Political Parties S responsibilities in Haiti The basic Aristide Andrew YoungAs advice to Aristide Who supported the coup dABtatC Aristide views of S policy Aristide =Family is -ife? Foundation AristideAs marriage Contacts with S Embassy Officers Haiti and Alice in Wonderland and EDodus The Role of the S 8overnment and Embassy in Haiti Historical relationship with France HaitiAs historic slavery and isolation S Marine Corps and Haitian Army S acceptance of =Papa Doc? Duvalier Haitian residents of S Haitian =Boat People? Wealth distribution Physical Environment Housing Economic insecurity Democracy as goal Contacts with visiting S officials Aristide Return to Power c1..E Physical environment =Cite Soleil? AristideAs Hate and 8ross Injustice S Black Caucus influence S policy options International -eft views Election of 0000 0 AristideAs popularity Haiti a =Failed State?C HaitiAs assets Haitian art Tourist attractions Physical beauty Departure from Haiti 0004 Personalities ,ournalists Organi:ation of American States FOAS) -uigi Einaudi ,ean Domini(ue RBnB PrBval Michelle Montas Mrs. Serge Hillard -eslie Francois Manigat News reporting problems Comments -egislative elections, 0000 Diplomat observation and reporting Reporting Haitian elections Haiti as a =soul? state. INTERVIEW : We are in Caguas, Puerto Rico with Mike Norton. It*s the 6th of September 2007. And we*re going to talk about Mike Norton from zero until the present time. Mike, tell me first of all in one paragraph just the broad outlines of where you were, what you did, and we*ll go into the details later. .ou were born where/ .ou went where to school/ Let*s get it in a tiny capsule and then we*ll go back and cover it. NORTON: Okay, my biosynopsis. I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 1.40. I suppose it was a lovely spring because in those days before climate change had become an issue springs were lovely in Minnesota. I was born into a working class, ,ewish family. I went to school. When I wasnAt in their school, I was learning Hebrew at Hebrew School. I went on to college. I began work, actually, at 13 sweeping the floor of a cleanerAs and unloading trucks for a number of years and went on to college. I went to a small college in St. Paul, one of the Twin Cities, called Hamline niversity. And then I went on for a brief period to post1graduate study at niversity of Chicago. I 3 didnAt last there very long. I found it horribly snobbish. Maybe it was the ghost of its benefactor and the 8othic atmosphere" it also may have been because I felt that it was more important to follow a woman than to pursue my studies. I then went to the niversity of Minnesota for an MA in Philosophy and English and American -iterature. And concluded my studies, that is to say my evasion of the draft, in 1.5. at the niversity of Wisconsin. I had a candidacy for the doctorate in American -iterature. I then left for the great beyond. I spent some time in Ireland. Then I went on to Paris, France, and other adventures followed. I met a wonderful woman who was one of HaitiAs most glorious artists. And, in her attempt to get back to her native land, we left Paris in 1.7. and went first to Martini(ue I spent four or five years there I then went to live in the Dominican Republic. And then when Duvalier fell, ,ean1Claude Duvalier fell, in 1.25, we crossed the border. Actually, we were flown in a private plane. The pilot was the same pilot who was with Aristide when Aristide was ousted. And then I went to work in Haiti. I scrounged a while looking for a job 1 very, very difficult to find a job. And then I got into, I did some teaching. I had taught English as a foreign language for a number of years and then I went into radio and I became a journalist. I had my own program I first at night, a program of commentary. I commented on the events I the eDtraordinary political revolution in Haiti. And then I began a Sunday night interview program with the luminaries of Haiti I artists, politicians, intellectuals I in French and Creole. I did that until the state of siege in 1.22 of 8eneral Prosper Avril. And, since my good friend, Antoine I:mery was banished11he was later killed during AristideAs eDile by military thugs11since he was my sponsor, I stopped. I stopped regretfully since radio was my true love. And then I dedicated myself entirely to reporting for The Associated Press from 1.22 until 0004. And simultaneously I was a sort of pundit/performer for the BBC on the subject of Haiti. I had a lovely eDperience with the BBC. I was free to give my opinions and arguments. I also, during the coup dABtat, did free commentaries and analysis in Creole for a community radio in Montreal for the Haitian communityK Things like that: believing at all times that if people could get to know the truth, right action would follow. : A uni1ue tra-ectory. Thank you for the thumbnail. Every bit of it must be e3panded greatly. Let*s go in order. Let*s go back to the beginning in Minneapolis. What was Minneapolis to you, and how did you see it in your development as part of the larger world/ NORTON: I was a young ,ewish boy in Minnesota. You have to understand what Minnesota was to me. Again, itAs my Minnesota. What did it mean to be in MinnesotaC What was MinnesotaC Within a radius of ten blocks, three separate English accents could be heard. The accents of the African Americans whose fathers and mothers had probably migrated from the south after the Second World War. WeAre now talking about the 1.40As as I was born in 1.40. The accent of the sons of native1born Minnesotans, and 4 then the accents of the sons and daughters of immigrants like myself. My accent, although you can probably hear something of Minnesota in it, was largely shaped by national broadcast news I Edward R. Murrow and all those other people that my father listened assiduously to. So three different accents. It was, now looking back on it, rather curious. At the time it seemed natural. But you integrate the unnatural and it functions naturally in your system whether youAre conscious of it or not. Minnesota, to me, was the backyard of the house I was born in. It was the elm tree. It was the fresh1smelling grass. It was the bleeding hearts my father planted in the garden. I was in wonder that the ground could put forth such things. It was the aerial I strung from my bedroom to the garage. That was stolen by a neighborhood kid. Hostility: theme of my first youth. That led from the garage to my hiding under my sheets listening to the Hoice of America and Willis Conover. And, above my head, the walls plastered with the faces of the great ja:: musicians I adored: Satchmo, of course, and ,ohnny Hodges, Art Tatum, Di::y 8illespie, Charlie ParkerK Charlie Parker died in 1.EE. I never really got to see him in any of the concerts I tried to attend. My parents were not racist but they were somewhat taken aback by all of those black faces looking at them from my bedroom wall. I was attached to that back yard, to that elm tree, to the beasties I found there and to the smell of the earth in spring. And then when we moved, that became detachment. I really didnAt know where I was. There was a ,ewish tradition which, as we will discuss, was eDtremely important to us. We were orthodoD ,ews because we were poor. As my parents went up the social ladder I my father was an office worker, he became an office worker with a slightly larger salary I they became conservative. They never got wealthy enough to become Reform ,ews, but it was completely class1oriented and turned me off. I didnAt understand then two things: what the American way of life was that I was taught again and again at school, and what the ,ewish tradition was. For me, American ,udaism was nitarianism with dreidels. I didnAt want to play and I didnAt understand anything about the anti1Semitism. I mentioned hostility was rife in the neighborhood. -ooking back on it, thinking of the son of an Italian immigrant, the son of 8erman Minnesotan stock, =dirty ,ew, dirty ,ew,? every day.