Clinton and Bush take another shot at helping Haiti

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When Haiti was gripped by crisis in 1994, President Clinton sent troops to restore its exiled president to power, organized a $2.6-billion international rescue program and declared the island nation a top priority of his administration.

‘We should work this way whenever we can,’ he later wrote of the international effort in his memoir.

Yet, by the end of his term, the Clinton administration’s interest in Haiti had waned and its patience had worn out. Clinton ordered a halt to most direct U.S. aid, a step some experts say inflicted lasting damage on the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

Now Clinton has teamed up with former President George W. Bush on a fundraising program they say is aimed both at helping Haiti recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake and finally putting the battered country on a path to prosperity.

The effort also could help make up for the failings of U.S. policies over 16 years that have been fitful and, even by sympathetic assessments, made only modest progress.

Clinton’s efforts began in a blaze of ambition but faded because of the shortcomings of Haiti’s authoritarian government, disputes between the White House and a Republican Congress, and the urgency of other international crises.

Continue reading ‘Clinton and Bush take another shot at helping Haiti’

- Paul Richter reporting from Washington D.C.

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