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
François Duvalier young Duvalier. He was also aware of the latent political power of the poor black majority and their resentment against the tiny mulatto (black and white mixed-race) elite. Duvalier supported Pan-African ideals, and became involved in the "" movement of Haitian author , both of which led to his advocacy of Haitian Vodou, an ethnological study of which later paid enormous political dividends for him. In 1938, Duvalier co-founded the journal "Les Griots". On 27 December 1939, he married , with whom he had four children: Marie‑Denise, Nicole, Simone, and Jean‑Claude. In 1946, Duvalier aligned himself with President Dumarsais Estimé