THE ACTORS OF THE 1990 WAR
THE ACTORS OF THE 1990 WAR
The Liberian civil war of 1990 was driven by three main actors-President Samuel Kanyon Doe, Charles Ghankay Taylor, and Prince Yormie Johnson-each with a different mission.
President Doe, as Commander-in-Chief, had the constitutional mandate to defend the nation. For nearly a year, until ECOMOG arrived to broker a ceasefire, he stood as the defender of the Constitution, fighting to prevent a forceful takeover of Liberia.
On the other side was Charles Taylor. His objective was clear: to unconstitutionally unseat President Doe and seize power through arms.
The third actor, Prince Johnson, had a different calculation. Impatient with Taylor’s slow advance in Nimba, he broke away, marched on Monrovia, and sought to topple the government to make way for an interim administration.
In the end, both Doe and Prince Johnson achieved their stated ends in different ways -Doe defended the Constitution to his death-while Prince Johnson succeeded in overthrowing the government.
Taylor, in contrast, became complacent. Once he realized the Firestone Plantation was under his control, he established his headquarters in Gbarnga, Bong County, formed his own government, and struck a deal for Firestone to operate under it. After his failed attempts to take Monrovia in 1990, he paused the war for the capital until 1992, when he launched the deadly Operation Octopus-a move that showed his enduring love for money and power.
