Somoza and the Legacy of U. S. Involvement in Central America Book

"No one . . . is better qualified than Bernard Diederich to tell the horrifying story of Haiti under the rule of Dr. François Duvalier . . . What a story it is: tragic, terrifying, bizarre, even comic at times. Papa Doc sits in his bath wearing his top hat for meditating; the head of his enemy Philogenes stands on his desk; the hearse carrying another enemy's body is stolen by the Tonton Macoutes at the church door; the writer Alexis is stoned to death . . . a full account of Duvalier's reign which will be indispensable to historians."
--From the Foreword by Graham Greene

"Shakedowns of foreign businessmen and their governments are commonplace--torture, sometimes directed by the dictator himself . . . is the cement holding the police state together. The frustrating counterpoint is how Duvalier has undone U.S. policy and humiliated Washington." --Washington Post

"Unpatronizing and level-headed." --The New York Times

"A truly revealing book." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch