Every crisis response must necessarily be contoured by history. The United States could not be seen as running Haiti because we had already done that several times in the 20th century; Cuba and Venezuela were already calling US relief efforts the Yankee invasion; airdrops were limited because they would seem too much like a military attack. Because the earthquake had been a slow shake moving from one side of Port au Prince to the other, many Haitians believed that the country was being bombed by Americans.
The US Agency for International Development led the US government’s response, which included the tremendous assets of FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the US military. That first night, the Haitian airport was quiet. There was no air-traffic control, no tower communications, no navigational or landing aids. Haiti’s only seaport was damaged, and no ships could approach the nation to deliver goods. A single dangerous lane of traffic could be driven from the Dominican Republic, but that trip was over 10 hours.
When morning came, the Air Force did a fly-by and determined that the airport could handle the rush of aid. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton convinced then-Haitian President Rene Preval to cede operations to the US military. Given the history of US military involvement in Haiti, including the entry of US forces in 1994 to reinstate President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during her husband’s presidency, Clinton’s request was not easy. But Preval was well aware of his country’s physical isolation, which meant that someone else had to come in and control logistics.
A plastic folding table and some chairs were set up in the grass next to the runway. There was no electricity, no computers, not even telephones. There was also no space for long goodbyes; the airport could park only 12 planes. Regimented slot times were provided to incoming flights and unloading happened quickly.
