Heard Any Good Rumors?

Air Force One had just lifted off around 9 a.m., winging President Reagan and his entourage from Washington to Houston to attend the Challenger crew's memorial service, when Larry Speakes hurried to the press compartment at the rear of the aircraft. "The White House was informed shortly before 7:30 a.m.," Speakes said, "that the government of Haiti had collapsed and that the leadership, including Duvalier, had fled."

The startled press corps quickly swung into action. At 9:10 a.m. the first wire service bulletins were transmitted reporting the collapse of the government of President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier. If the announcement caused a stir in newsrooms across the country, it probably did not compare with the reaction at the Department of State. Within moments, officials appeared in the pressroom to warn reporters that Washington had no confirmation of Duvalier's fall. The official disclaimer came at 1:45 p.m. at the daily State Department press briefing. "As of now," Spokesman Bernard Kalb said, "our information is that there has been no change of government." Kalb apologized for delaying the briefing by nearly two hours. "It took a bit more energy to get my act into shape," he joked.

The embarrassing foul-up, however, was no laughing matter for the Reagan Administration. It is highly irregular for the White House to break the news that a foreign government has fallen, and virtually unheard of when the affected country is a U.S. ally. To compound that anomaly by issuing a report that was incorrect as well may be unprecedented. During the afternoon, when Duvalier was reported to have been seen riding through the streets of Port-au- Prince, Haiti's capital, the seriousness of the diplomatic gaffe gave way to a spirited round of pass-the-buck.

Quickly, a picture of bumbling emerged. It turned out that late last week the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince sent an "alert" to the State Department, reporting rumors that Duvalier had fled the country. Haiti is perennially a hotbed of gossip, and inaccurate reports had already generated a premature celebration on Thursday night in Miami, where one person was killed. The message thus could hardly be taken as sounding the final, definitive toll for the Duvalier dynasty, but the State Department relayed the "alert" nonetheless to the White House Situation Room for the National Security Council. According to State Department officials, someone at the NSC staff chose to read the rumor as an accomplished fact. At 8:40 a.m., the President was told that Duvalier had been toppled. So informed, Speakes misspoke.

Who was to blame? Privately, State officials called it a White House fiasco. Publicly, Speakes placed the gaffe firmly at the steps of the State Department. In the end State diplomatically shouldered the blame. "The White House acted on an initial report conveyed by State," said one good soldier. But unhappy officials at Foggy Bottom may have taken some satisfaction from the front-page banner headline splayed across the Friday afternoon edition of the Miami News: DUVALIER HAS FLED HAITI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTS.