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But the mission only became a live possibility when Carter received a call from Cedras Friday morning saying he would receive a delegation led by the former President. In a pathetic show of legalism, Cedras added that he would first have to get the approval of the figurehead president Jonnaissant. By 3 p.m. Friday Cedras called Carter back with (surprise!) Jonnaissant's O.K. Clinton had Lake announce a short while later that the delegation would be going to talk to "the de facto leadership of Haiti" -- a marked softening of rhetoric from his chief's talk the night before about "Cedras and his armed thugs." Talking to them even now, said senior Administration officials, is important domestically and internationally to show that they have not passed up a chance to resolve the situation peacefully out of foolish pride. Even though many Administration officials could not hide their optimism on Saturday, they all insisted Clinton might in the end have to order the first major military incursion of his presidency. It would come in defiance of intense public and congressional opposition that his Thursday night speech had only begun to soften. A TIME/CNN poll on Friday showed that 58% of Americans still opposed sending U.S. troops to oust Haiti's dictators. Nor was Congress impressed: Monday was the date for lawmakers to take up resolutions opposing an invasion, which, if a vote took place, were likely to pass overwhelmingly. Critics already were denouncing an invasion ordered without the legislature's approval as unconstitutional, and TIME's poll showed that 67% of the public agreed. Opponents would scream all the louder if the President acted not just without the consent of Congress but after it had declared its official opposition. The White House, however, hopes the Carter mission would soften some congressional wrath by demonstrating that Clinton had made an honest try to avoid shooting.
While waiting for the outcome of the Carter mission, both sides speeded up preparations for a fight. Clinton spent part of Saturday in the Pentagon's secure "tank" reviewing details of the assault. Secretary of Defense William Perry assured the public that resistance, if any, from the Haitian armed forces could be overcome "in a matter of hours, at most a day or two." Even so, he added somberly, there would be casualties, both American and Haitian.
In Haiti, there were reports Friday that some of the country's 7,000 soldiers were already shedding their uniforms and melting into the civilian populace. But that could have been in preparation to fight rather than to give up; some Haitian Americans insisted that if it came to war, Cedras and others would hide in the mountains to conduct a guerrilla campaign against U.S. troops, concentrating sniper fire on white soldiers. Some Haitians even maintained that the voodoo gods were on their side: they had sent Frank Corder's plane to crash into the White House lawn last Monday as a warning, and followed up by telling Clinton he must try to work things out with Cedras.