POTUSRECORDThe office changes.Bill Clinton / Clinton / Democracy & rights
1994–1996
Government restored · elections held · GAO assessment (1996)
Historical case snapshot · reviewed
Published · Visual edition October 6, 2026
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Visual guide: Haiti: restoration of elected government and election support. U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO; name at publication) and the linked official records supply the evidence below. This diagram is not a photograph, chronology of legal effect or measure of success.
Events 1994–1996; principally evaluated in GAO reports issued March and July 1996. This is not a claim about Haiti’s subsequent or current democratic condition.
Restore elected civilian government and support elections and human rights after the 1991 coup.
A U.N.-authorized, U.S.-led force entered in September 1994 after diplomatic pressure and threatened intervention. Washington funded and monitored the 1995 elections.
Aristide returned in October 1994; elected successor René Préval took office in February 1996. GAO reported generally peaceful elections and no organized fraud affecting the outcome, while documenting irregularities.
Low turnout, unresolved political killings and weak justice institutions remained. GAO reported more than $1.6 billion in U.S. incremental support costs for FY1992–1995, spanning the preceding Bush administration and broader aid; it did not verify reported cost accuracy and excluded domestic assistance to Haitian migrants. This is not the cost of Clinton’s intervention alone.
OFFICIAL EVIDENCE / FULL SOURCE REGISTER
Source dates identify the original publication, document or stated vintage. The review date identifies when this edition examined that evidence.