Word: tolbert
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...Master Sergeant Doe led a band of soldiers into the executive mansion, shot down President William Tolbert and later executed 13 of Tolbert's associates on the beach. High school dropout Doe thereupon became President, the first from one of the indigenous tribes, the Krahns. He accused his predecessors of corruption, but his main goal was the end of Americo- Liberian rule. "The choice we faced," recalls Richard Moose, who was then Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, "was either to move into the situation, which was universally considered out of the question, and take control -- or live with...
...officials took hopeful stock of Doe, who had been trained by U.S. special forces. Compared with Tolbert, Doe seemed refreshingly simple; he abandoned the presidential limousine for a Chevette. Officials also worried a lot in those days about the subversive efforts of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. When Doe let it be known that Gaddafi had made overtures, the U.S. hastened to increase its aid, from $19 million in 1979 to $72 million in 1983. The U.S. theory was that Doe could be surrounded by technical experts who would educate him and keep him in line. "He was just a young...