Renda's Taking Haiti

Mary Renda's Taking Haiti explores the US military occupation of Haiti between 1915-1940. As she points out, this occupation shaped both countries. Through US history classes, students receive a particular historical narratives. What I've learned in school turns this occupation into a side note, and distorts US's paternalism into the image of the savior. I was completely struck by Renda's assertion that the "United States was remade through overseas imperial ventures in the first third of the 20th century" (12). It's not so much that this was novel for me--I'd say that by the end of World War I (coinciding with the occupation of Haiti) the US steps up to be a mediating power while the "kids" of the "Old Continent" are squabbling over numerous political, economic and social problems. What I think I was more struck by is how we can still see today the reinforcement of this "new" image that the US used to recreate itself. When I read the above line, I recalled the number of reasons we went into Iraq in 2003, and how we continue to infantilize the Other. Rather than looking internally at our national problems, the US has taken on the attitude that it can remake and reconstruct an entire country (politically/socially/economically) without keeping in mind the desires and needs of that country. While paternalism isn't the only discourse, I think that we can continue to see how Western countries continue to look at the "Global South" and developing nations as "wards".