Dr. Francois Duvalier Haiti Dbq Essay

Papa Doc Dr. Francois Duvalier was known for his time as President of Haiti for being a ruthless, unhealthy man who would lie to his people and rule them harshly. He started in the government as a hard working man to better public health. Once he tasted the power of absolute rule though, this would change. At first, Duvalier only wanted to make Haiti a better place for the people their, but when he became president he took a turn for the worse. Haiti is familiar with ineffective rulers, but Duvalier was the worse by far. He hurt his people financially and physically, he wasted the government’s money on things he wanted and not what the country needed, and he treated his officials with distrust and cruelty. There were efforts to stop him

Duvalier tried his best to cover up what he was doing from countries such as America. Though his ways of ruling his country and his insanity, which many believe came after his heart attack, could be seen by everyone in America, around the world, and in his country. Duvalier believed that other countries were trying to destroy him and his people. This was a sign of his extreme paranoia at the end of his career, and how he dealt with opposing powers governments. “Oh, several white nations, and they spend many millions for instance in 1963, not only to overthrow the president Duvalier but to destroy the fatherland, our father land” (Whicker’s Papa Doc). He began to fear other foreign powers and started worrying that they would try to attack him. A few foreigners at one point tried to take over his government and had come close to succeeding which fueled Duvalier’s fire to be more harsh to his people and in his administration. An example of his use of foreign aid for himself comes with his city Duvalierville. “But he squandered much of the funds on grandiose prestige projects like the model city of Duvalierville, now a collection of decaying buildings overgrown by jungle” (Death and Legacy). He wastefully used money from other countries for himself and his projects that he never finished. As a result of his poor use of money, the Haitian people would be the ones that would have to suffer. “Under Duvalier, Haiti's per capita income of less than $75 remained the hemisphere's lowest, and the country was still racked by disease and hunger” (Death and Legacy). An ironic fact about Duvalier is that he was a Doctor and started out with disease prevention ideas. Though he would end up getting so caught up in keeping his presidential power that he dropped all his energy from disease prevention in Haiti. This was one of his