Jean-Claude Duvalier clique of hardline Duvalierist cronies, the so-called "dinosaurs". Foreign officials and observers also seemed tolerant toward "Baby Doc" in areas such as human rights monitoring and foreign countries were more generous to him with economic assistance. The Nixon administration restored the United States aid program for Haiti in 1971. On 27 May 1980, Duvalier married Michèle Bennett Pasquet in a wedding that cost US$2million. The extravagance of the couple's wedding did not lack local critics, though "The Christian Science Monitor" reported that "the event... was enthusiastically received by a majority of Haitians". Discontent among the business community and elite intensified
Duvalier dynasty after the assassination of Kennedy, relations with Duvalier eased, partially due to Haiti's strategic location near Cuba. Duvalier died on 21 April 1971. During his rule, an estimated 30,000 citizens were killed by the government, and hundreds of thousands of Haitians emigrated to the United States, Cuba, and Canada. Duvalier was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude, as the country's new leader. Still a teenager when he ascended to public office, Duvalier was said to be reckless and dissolute, raised in elite isolation and uninterested in politics. The first few years of his administration saw him leaving administrative duties to his