The U.S. occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1934. This encouraged international interest in Vodou, catered for in the sensationalist writings of Faustin Wirkus, William Seabrook, and John Craige. Some practitioners arranged shows based on Vodou rituals to entertain holidaymakers, especially in Port-au-Prince. The period also saw growing rural to urban migration in Haiti, and the increasing influence of the Roman Catholic Church. 1941 saw the launch of "Operation Nettoyage" (Operation Cleanup), a process backed by the Roman Catholic Church to expunge Vodou, resulting in the destruction of many ounfòs and Vodou paraphernalia. Violent responses from Vodouists led President Élie Lescot to abandon the Operation. Meanwhile, during the occupation the indigenist movement among Haiti's middle-classes encouraged a more positive assessment of Vodou and peasant culture, a trend supported by the appearance of professional ethnological research on the topic.