I was lucky enough at one point in my stay in Liberia to be in a car with a government minister. As he pointed out the sites and told us the history of what we were passing someone asked if he missed the United States where he had studied. Without skipping a beat and surprisingly without a trace of malice in his voice he said the following:
"America is the cause of a lot of the problems that we have here. We went through President Tolbert who was installed, a 6th grader as president for 10 years. They pumped 550 million into a military dictator [Doe] who used the arms against his people. Charles Taylor ran away and he was in jail in Boston. They let him out and financed him to come and overthrow that government. They had many opportunities to stop the war which they didn't do. Today they are saying, 'you know, on second thought...' "
"I lived in the States. I was thankful that my kids and family were happy and my kids were going to school, but at the bottom of my heart I was not settled. The first opportunity, I came home."
The car was full of silent, possibly stunned, Texans. I was happy to have been there at that moment to have heard the heart of a Liberian. Then as smoothly as he had described the troubled history of American foreign policy he slid back to being tour guide and host, pointing out more local landmarks as we passed.
Arrival of William Tolbert, Jr., President of Liberia to the Whitehouse to greet President Richard Nixon, 06/05/1973
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