Operation Uphold Democracy
| Operation Uphold Democracy | |||||||
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 Soldiers of C Company, 2nd Battalion 22nd Infantry, 10th Mountain Division securing Port-au-Prince Airport on the first day of Operation Uphold Democracy. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States Poland Argentina
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 Haiti
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Bill Clinton George Fisher Sławomir Petelicki Enrique Molina Pico Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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Raoul Cédras Émile Jonassaint Robert Malval
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 killed | 100-200 killed | ||||||
Operation successful
Operation Uphold Democracy (19 September 1994 – 31 March 1995) was an intervention designed to remove the military regime installed by the 1991 Haitian coup d'état that overthrew the elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The operation was effectively authorized by the 31 July 1994 United Nations Security Council Resolution 940.
The operation began with the alert of United States and its allies for a forced entry into the island nation of Haiti. U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Air Force elements staged to Puerto Rico and southern Florida to prepare to support the airborne invasion, spearheaded by elements of the Joint Special Operations Command (HQ, 75th Ranger Regiment), followed by 3rd Special Forces Group, the US Army 7th Transportation Group (Army watercraft and terminal elements) and the 10th Mountain Division. These elements were staged out of Hunter Army Airfield and Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The operation was directed by Commander, Joint Task Force 120 (JTF-120), provided by Commander, Carrier Group Two.
As these forces prepared to invade, the entire 82nd Airborne Division, the lead elements of which were already in the air, a diplomatic element led by former President Jimmy Carter, U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell persuaded the leaders of Haiti to step down and allow the elected officials to return to power. The main leader holding power was General Joseph Raoul Cédras and was the key focus of the delegation. General Powell's personal relationship with Cédras from when Cédras was a student in the "School of the Americas" as a young officer played a significant role in the American delegation gaining an audience with General Cédras and enabling the conduct of negotiations for approximately two weeks. Despite the capable diplomatic efforts of the American delegation and the insinuation that force would be used if required, negotiations were at a virtual stalemate for the entire time with General Cédras obstinately refusing to concede to the legitimacy of the democratic elections. As a final effort to force the dictator to step down without violence, the delegation presented General Cédras a video feed of the entire 82nd Airborne Division loading aircraft. While allowing Cédras to process the panic-inducing sight, he was informed that while he assumed he was watching a live-feed, he was in fact viewing a video captured more than 2 hours before. As such, they explained unnecessarily, the lead elements of the 15,000 paratrooper strong airborne assault force had already launched from Fort Bragg, N.C. and were currently over the Atlantic Ocean. They further informed him of the United States' commitment to supporting democracy and that a forced-entry airborne assault on the island nation would result in all likelihood, in Haiti being under U.S. control before the sun came up the next morning. The delegation had issued a final ultimatum to the dictator. His choices were to recognize the wish of the Haitian people as expressed through the democratic election of Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide and quietly retire, or continue to deny the election's outcome in which case the U.S. would forcibly wrest control of his country and see justice done. To remove all uncertainty from the dictator's mind, he was reminded by the delegation that the 82nd Airborne Division had also spearheaded overwhelmingly decisive victories during Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada and Operation Just Cause in Panama in the recent past. Within minutes General Cédras capitulated under the most favorable terms available to him at that time.
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