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The Defense Department scrambled all week to position the military for action. In Puerto Rico, troops began warm-up maneuvers. Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch ordered seven huge cargo ships out of mothballs; a day later, he activated five more supply vessels. They are expected to set sail this week to transport weapons and materiel for the Army's 10th Mountain Division, which will play a key part in the postinvasion peacekeeping force. On Friday, Pentagon officials said that the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower will pull into its berth in Norfolk, Virginia, this week and begin replacing its planes with 70 helicopters, which can more easily land troops in Haiti. By late this week, the Ike and the U.S.S. Mount Whitney, which will serve as the invasion's command vessel, will leave for the Caribbean. Both ships should be in place by early next week.
Although the Pentagon has long insisted its troops would meet little resistance from the 7,000-man Haitian army, spokesmen indicated the total invasion force will probably consist of 20,000 U.S. troops, an overwhelming force intended to minimize casualties. Nearly half would be slated for peacekeeping, once returning President Jean-Bertrand Aristide settles in. Only about 13,000 are expected to actually invade Haiti, led by 1,800 Marines, who will storm Port-au-Prince to secure the airport and the U.S. embassy and then await reinforcements. The entire operation will be commanded by Admiral Paul D. Miller, a hard-charging, innovative officer. While Miller says he is "ready for whatever mission we're given," he concedes that it will not be "a one-day problem."
For that reason, Administration officials are at pains to lay out their plans for the days after the initial attack. As tensions heightened, William Gray III, Clinton's special envoy on Haiti, brought General John Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, together with Aristide for a 90-minute meeting on Tuesday, when details of the invasion were discussed. The U.S. also began enlisting Haitian refugees from Guantanamo to participate in an interim police force that would step in to replace the Haitian army and restore order. A token force of about 300 troops from eight Caribbean nations would then join a larger international peacekeeping force that would quickly replace U.S. units and train a permanent new Haitian security force. "The military mission is to restore democratic processes," says a senior U.S. official. "But we're not going in there to do nation building. This is not a 20-year exercise."
In the end, it may no longer matter whether Clinton succeeds this week in persuading Americans to support him in his venture. For better or worse, the President has drawn a line from which he can no longer retreat, and which points inexorably toward war. There is now only one person who can change that: Raoul Cedras.