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Haiti and the Heavens: Utopianism and Technocracy in the Cold War Era Adam M

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Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 6-2-2016 Haiti and the Heavens: Utopianism and Technocracy in the Cold War Era Adam M. Silvia Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC000766 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Cultural History Commons, Diplomatic History Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Latin American History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Silvia, Adam M., "Haiti and the Heavens: Utopianism and Technocracy in the Cold War Era" (2016). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2544. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2544 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida HAITI AND THE HEAVENS: UTOPIANISM AND TECHNOCRACY IN THE COLD WAR ERA A dissertation to Be suBmitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY by Adam M. Silvia 2016 To: Dean John Stack Green School of International and PuBlic Affairs This dissertation, written By Adam M. Silvia, and entitled Haiti and the Heavens: Utopianism and Technocracy in the Cold War Era, having Been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it Be approved. ________________________________ Alexandra Cornelius ________________________________ Ronald Cox ________________________________ Kate Ramsey ________________________________ Kenneth Lipartito, Co-Major Professor ________________________________ Victor UriBe, Co-Major Professor Date of Defense: June 2, 2016 The dissertation of Adam M. Silvia is approved. ________________________________ Dean John Stack Green School of International and PuBlic Affairs ________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2016 ii © Copyright 2016 By Adam M. Silvia All Rights Reserved Chapter 3, “Family Planning in Fond Parisien,” was previously puBlished as “Modern Mothers for Third World Nations: Population Control, Medical Imperialism, and Cold War Politics in Haiti,” Social History of Medicine 27, no. 2 (May 2014): 260-280. Republished with permission By Oxford University Press and the Society for the Social History of Medicine. Figures 2, 3, 9, 17, 21 © By Bernard Diederich, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 © by Andover-Harvard Theological LiBrary, 16 © By GloBal Communities, 20 © By Reason, 22 © By CariBBean-Central America Action, 24 © By Bill Bollendorf. Reproduced with permission. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my parents. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Foremost, I would like to thank my committee. Dr. Kenneth Lipartito and Dr. Victor UriBe were kindly advisors. Dr. Ronald Cox, who previously served on my master’s thesis committee, Dr. Kate Ramsey, and Dr. Alexandra Cornelius were also very supportive. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the History Department at Florida International University and everyone who provided commentary my research: Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Julio Capo, David NoBle Cook, Paula de la Cruz- Fernández, Erika Edwards, Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor, Hadassah St. HuBert, Sherry Johnson, and Alex Lichtenstein. I greatly appreciate the support of the University Graduate School, which awarded me Both the Evidence Acquisition Fellowship and the Dissertation Writing Fellowship. I was also given the Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship By the Latin American and CariBBean Center and the Green Family Fellowship for Latin American and CariBBean Studies By the Green Family Foundation. I am proud to say that my dissertation utilizes the new Bernard Diederich Collection at the Steven and Dorothea Green LiBrary. I would like to thank Bernard Diederich, who let me organize the collection, and Mireille Charles, Annia González, Kimberly Green, Dimmy Herard, Rose Nicholson, and Brooke Wooldridge, who supported the acquisition process. I would also like to thank Marie Yvette and FauBert St. HuBert, who invited me with stay with them in New York; the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of v Miami; Fran O’Donnell, who helped me access the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Records in Cambridge; and Annie Mueller, who welcomed me to Global Communities in Silver Spring. vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION HAITI AND THE HEAVENS: UTOPIANISM AND TECHNOCRACY IN THE COLD WAR ERA by Adam M. Silvia Florida International University, 2016 Miami, Florida Professor Kenneth Lipartito, Co-Major Professor Professor Victor UriBe, Co-Major Professor This study examined technocracy in Haiti in the Cold War era. It showed how Haitian and non-Haitian technicians navigated United States imperialism, Soviet ideology, and postcolonial nationalism to implement Bold utopian visions in a country oppressed By poverty and dynastic authoritarianism. Throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century, technicians lavished Haiti with plans to improve the countryside, the city, the workplace, and the home. This study analyzed those plans and investigated the motivations Behind them. Based on new evidence discovered in the private correspondence Between Haitian, American, and Western European specialists, it questioned the assumption that technocracy was captivated By high-modernist ideology and US hegemony. It exposed how many technicians were inspired By a utopian desire to create a just society—one Based not only on technical knowledge But also on humanist principles, such as liBerty and equality. Guided By the utopian impulse, technicians occasionally disoBeyed policymakers who wished to promote modernization and the capitalist vii world-economy. In many cases, however, they also upset the Haitian people, who Believed technocracy was too exclusive. This study concluded that technicians were empowered By expertise But unaBle to Build the utopias they envisioned Because they were constantly at odds with Both policymakers at the top and the people whose lives they planned. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. UTOPIANISM AND TECHNOCRACY ........................................................ 1 II. REGIONAL PLANNING IN THE ARTIBONITE VALLEY .......................... 40 III. FAMILY PLANNING IN FOND PARISIEN ................................................ 94 IV. URBAN PLANNING IN AND OUTSIDE PORT-AU-PRINCE .................. 139 V. CENTRAL PLANNING AND THE NEW RIGHT ..................................... 183 VI. THE END OF UTOPIA ............................................................................ 226 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................ 245 VITA…... ............................................................................................................ 291 ix LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Utopianism and Technocracy in Print, 1900-2000 .......................................... 4 2. Harry Yoe, Director of the United States Operations Mission to Haiti ........... 12 3. Marc Holly, Co-Chairman of the Organisation de Développement de la Vallée de l’ArtiBonite ............................................................................ 41 4. The Association of the Valley Plan with the Valley Section .......................... 49 5. The Institute of Inter-American Affairs in the ArtiBonite Valley ...................... 60 6. Norman Ward, USG Technician with Haitian Specialists Outside the Ecole Nationale d’Agriculture ........................................................................ 67 7. 4-H in the ArtiBonite Valley ........................................................................... 71 8. Norris, Tennessee and Deschapelle, Haiti .................................................... 72 9. Centrale Hydro-Electrique François Duvalier de Péligre, Commemorative Medallion Minted in 1970 .................................................. 93 10. Alice Sheridan, Spokeswoman of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee with François Duvalier ................................................. 106 11. The Centre d’Hygiène Familiale in Fond Parisien ....................................... 110 12. CHF Wagoneer and Movie Projector .......................................................... 124 13. Children with Quand nous serons grands ................................................... 127 14. Ary Bordes, Haitian Physician ..................................................................... 133 15. Blueprint for Washing Machines in Haiti ..................................................... 150 16. Wallace CampBell, President of the Foundation for Cooperative Housing International, Inc. with RoBert Dodge and Jack Edmondson ........ 154 17. Plan for Duvalier-Ville ................................................................................. 165 18. Art and Urban Planning ............................................................................... 166 19. Plan for Model Homes in St. Martin ............................................................ 178 x 20. Leslie Delatour, Ministre de Finance ........................................................... 184 21. André Apaid, Haitian Businessman ...........................................................
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