Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 3, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2018 | Page 19

Global Security and Intelligence Studies
ic behavior while at medical school, additional information regarding Duvalier’s
temperament comes to light in a story told by one of his instructors: while living
with a roommate at a boarding house, Duvalier “heard from the houseboy that his
roommate has spoken unfavorably about him. Without questioning the gossip,
Duvalier moved out and never spoke to the roommate” (Diederich and Burt 1969,
37). Later, one of his physician-instructors commented that Duvalier “feels that
nobody less educated than he could ever deceive him, so he believes them” (Diederich
and Burt 1969, 37). This behavior extended to his political relationships,
with Duvalier turning against many of his close associates at the slightest inkling
of disloyalty. These behavioral observations were interpreted as an acute sense of
paranoia by others, which falls in line, and is further amplified with his behavior
later in his political career. In political dictators, paranoia is often coupled with
regular waves of power consolidation and the brutal removal of distrusted others.
After graduation from medical school in 1934, Duvalier began an internship
at the Hospice Saint François-de-Sales. During this time, he gained the nickname
“Papa Doc,” bestowed on him by his patients (Perper and Cina 2010). This
would prove to be fitting as he would later come to see himself as the father of
Haiti and its people. It is during this time that Duvalier was revered by the Haitian
peasantry for his healing work as a doctor—something that he would later come to
exploit. Five years after medical school, he married Simone Ovide. They had three
daughters and a son; Jean-Claude became his father’s successor (Diederich and
Burt 1969). Following Duvalier’s medical internship, while unable to gain employment
as an Army medical doctor due to his eyesight, he was appointed as a government
consultant for a retirement home just south of Port-au-Prince (Abbott
1988). This position gave him additional exposure to work within the government.
In the 1940s, Duvalier began his participation in a joint U.S.-Haiti effort to
control the spread of tropical diseases in Haiti. The leader of this project, Dr. James
Dwinelle, made use of Duvalier’s medical and English-speaking skills and used
him as an interpreter (Diederich and Burt 1969). In June 1943, Duvalier served as
chief of his own clinic. A year later, his dedication to this effort afforded him the
opportunity to continue his post-medical education at the University of Michigan,
a position he received as a result of the Inter-American Affairs Commission,
where he studied from 1944 to 1945 (Diederich and Burt 1969). While Duvalier
reportedly failed his courses at the University of Michigan, he returned to Haiti
and continued working in the field of tropical medicine (Abbott 1988).
The death of his mother and the U.S. occupation from 1915 to 1928 are
considered to be critical events during Duvalier’s transition to young adulthood.
Up to this point, nothing suggested that Duvalier would become a predatory and
ruthless dictator. There is no evidence indicating that he suffered from the same
mental illness as his mother. During this period of his life, Duvalier is commonly
described as being sheepish and reserved. “To his school friends, he was a bespectacled
bookworm who shunned confrontation, a retiring ‘hole in the corner’ figure
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