From Neocolony to State of Siege the History of US Policy Toward Cuba JANE FRANKLIN Control of Cuba to the US Government
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Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Resist Newsletters Resist Collection 8-30-2001 Resist Newsletter, July-Aug 2001 Resist Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, July-Aug 2001" (2001). Resist Newsletters. 334. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/334 Inside: Organizing for New US/Cuba Policy ISSN0897-2613 • Vol.10#6 A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority July/August 2001 From Neocolony to State of Siege The History of US Policy Toward Cuba JANE FRANKLIN control of Cuba to the US government. Cuba converted from a colony of Spain to soon as the 13 colonies won in a neocolony of the United States. Among dependence from the British em its dictates, the Platt Amendment provided A: ire, the United States began its that the United States could intervene mili own march toward empire. In 1808, Presi tarily at any time and could maintain ports dent Thomas Jefferson tried to buy Cuba on the island. This amendment was abro from Spain. A year later, he wrote to his gated in 1934 except for the US naval sta successor, James Madison, that with the tion at Guantanamo, which remains. addition of Cuba and Canada "we should US-approved elections led to US-ap have such an empire for liberty as she has CADCIDD proved repression. US troops occupied never surveyed since the creation." Cuba again from 1906 until 1909 and peri By 1823, having acquired Florida from PRDTESTA odically sent troops to help quell rebellion. Spain a few years earlier, the United States encuentro agosto 1367 casa de las amencas/ cuba In 1940 the Cuban people created a new had expanded to within 90 miles of Cuba. Alfredo Gonzalez ROSTGMRD Constitution, along with hopes for a peace Spain was a dying empire. The United A Retrospective: Cuban Revolutionary PosterS ful transition to democracy. States was on the rise. Secretary of State July 5 • August 31, 2001 (later president) John Quincy Adams de CUBAN ART SPACE Batista Dictatorship and Revolution scribed the likelihood of "annexation" 124 West 23rd Street, New York Oty In 1952, a young lawyer was running for within half a century in a statement that Alfredo Gonzalez Rostgaard's poster is Congress in Cuba when General Fulgencio remains the quintessence ofUS policy: "But part of "A Retrospective: Cuban Batista returned from Florida to stage a Revolutionary Posters." Graphic courtesy of there are laws ofpolitical as well as ofphysi the Center for Cuban Studies coup financed and supported by the US cal gravitation; and if an apple severed by government. Batista suspended the Con the tempest from its native tree cannot gress declared war against Spain, ostensi stitution and canceled elections. That choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forc bly to help free Cuba. In US history, this is young man, Fidel Castro, was not allowed ibly disjoined from its own unnatural con known as the Spani~h-American War; the to win or lose an election. The Helms-Bur nection with Spain, and incapable of self United States emerged with four new ton Act, signed into law by President support, can gravitate only towards the ports- the Philippines and Guam in the Clinton in 1996, specifies that neither Fidel North American Union, which by the same Pacific and Puerto Rico and Cuba in the nor Raul Castro will be allowed to run in a law of nature cannot cast her off from its Atlantic. "free election" that would be certified by bosom." Cubans call this policy "la fruta But Cuban history calls it the US Inter Washington. So it's easy to comprehend madura" (the ripe fruit). vention in Cuba's War of Independence. why US talk of "free elections" sounds In 1898, Cubans, waging their Second US troops occupied Cuba for four years. hollow to Cuban ears. Besides, the United War of Independence, were close to driv In exchange for removal of the occupation States does not have a record of support ing out the colonists from Spain. The US army, Cuba attached the Platt Amendment, ing elections won by someone not stamped government decided the fruit was ripe. Con- a US law, to their Constitution, granting continued on page two Vol. 10, #6 RESIST Newsletter Page 1 From Neocolony to State of Siege continued from page one On April 6, 1960, a State Department IANDAIIOV& with approval in Washing • IIIOMETRES document went even further: "Every pos ton (note Guatemala in sible means should be undertaken promptly 1954 and Chile in 1973). to weaken the economic life of Cuba ... to Under Batista, about 85 bring about hunger, desperation and the percent of Cuba's trade overthrow of government." President was with the US. Foreign YUCATAN Eisenhower canceled the sugar quota on ers, mainly from the United CHIIJIN4' July 26, 1960. States, owned 7 5 percent ., CARIBBEAN of arable land; 90 percent SEA Permanent State of Siege 0 AYMAN of services like water, elec LAND (UK) Desperate to be back in Cuba again, the tricity, and phones; and 40 Map courtesy of the Lonely Planet, www.lonelyplanet.com Eisenhower Administration prepared for, percent of the sugar indus and the new Kennedy Administration car try. Super exploitation and Batista's dicta initiated a campaign to overthrow the Cu ried out, the invasion at the Bay of Pigs in torship incited the revolution, led by Fidel ban government. Declassified documents April 1961, leading to a major defeat for the Castro, that finally triumphed on January show that CIA Director Allen Dulles United States. Another plan to overthrow 1, 1959. thought in November 1959 that Fidel Castro the government, Operation Mongoose, The new government began to estab would be out of power in about eight was launched in November 1961, leading lish a program of basic human rights: free months. At the same time, he told the Brit directly to the Missile Crisis of October health care, free education through the ish ambassador that, in the words of the 1962, the date planned for the downfall of university level, full employment, no land ambassador, "he hoped that any refusal by the Cuban government. lords for profits, trade on the basis of full us to supply arms would directly lead to a The order to end all trade with Cuba in equality, internationalism, and an affmna Soviet-bloc offer to supply. Then he might February 1962 was part of Operation Mon tion of Cuba's African heritage. (By 1840 be able to do something." The US govern goose. The Soviet Union and its allies filled in Cuba, descendants of Africans outnum ment was deliberately driving Cuba to re the vacuum, assuming the 85 percent of bered descendants of Europeans.) ceive aid from the Soviet Union and its allies. Cuban trade that had been part of US-Cu In health care, Cuba is recognized as a In December 1959, Dulles recommended ban relations. model. In 1988 the World Health Organiza to Col. J.C. King, chief of the CIA's West continued on page three tion (WHO) set goals for the year 2000 for ern Hemisphere division, that several ac Third World countries. President Castro tions be undertaken against Cuba. All of was then awarded WHO's Health for All those acts continue now in one form or medal because Cuba had already met those another. Some operations that were "co standards. Cuba's most recent infant mor vert" then are overt now. "Clandestine ra tality rate (for the year 2000) was 7.2 deaths dio attacks" are now open broadcasts from for every 1,000 live births, a rate compa Radio and TV Marti. rable to those of industrialized countries The "encouragement of pro-US oppo and, in fact, less than half the mortality rate sition groups" is now legalized by the in Washington, DC. Torricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Bur- Cuba is also recognized as a model in ton Act of 1996 ( with the Helms-Lieberman education. The Literacy Campaign of 1961 bill of2001 upping the ante ifit becomes law). ILLEGIIIMATI AUTIIORlff ~•'fj WA-../~ "'1te 1'161 virtually erased illiteracy. Cuba grants "Thorough consideration," wrote Dulles For information and grant guidelines, write scholarships to thousands of foreign stu in December 1959, should "be given to the to: Resist, 259 Elm St., Suite 201 Somerville, MA 02144 dents and has even set up a medical school elimination of Fidel Castro." In August 1960 www.resistinc.org;[email protected] where foreign students, including US stu the Eisenhower Administration recruited dents, are studying to become medical doc figures from organized crime to assassinate Resist Newsletter is published ten times a year by RESIST, Inc., (617)623-5110. The tors who will serve in deprived areas of Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders. Cu- views expressed in articles, other than edi their own countries. ban Americans trained then by the CIA torials, are those of the authors and do not Perhaps Cuba's most outstanding in continue that campaign. necessarily represent the opinions of the ternational achievement was in southern Af Declassified documents1 now prove the RESIST staff or board. rica, where Cuban troops contributed to the obvious: the Cuban people themselves RESIST Staff: Robin Carton defeat of South African troops in Angola, quickly became a target. A June 24, 1959, AmandaMatos-Gonz.alez leading in tum to the end of Apartheid State Department memo stated that if Cuba Carol Schachet South Africa, the freeing of Nelson were deprived of its sugar quota privilege RESIST Volunteer: Jean Smith Mandela, and the independence ofNamibia. in the US sugar market, "the sugar indus Newsletter Editor: Carol Schachet try would promptly suffer an abrupt decline, Guest Editor: Jan Strout Counterrevolution causing widespread further unemployment.