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Kelly Litt Senior Honors Thesis.Pdf Litt 1 The Infamous Stalemate: A Historical View of U.S. Cuban Relations Relationships between countries greatly shape policies and national influence. Through the historical study of these relationships, present policies can be better understood. As in the case of the United States and Cuba, often the relationship between the two nations is not acknowledged as relevant to current policies. However, the fluid nature of history makes apparent the importance of these policies and relations of the past. Understanding where the U.S. Cuban relationship began, where it went wrong, and how this relationship has been continually stalemated and neglected will provide historical insight into current U.S. policies and global influence. The stalemated historical relationship between the United States and Cuba, perpetuated by the leadership of Fidel Castro and sustained by U.S. actions, has greatly influenced historical and current policies, negatively affecting human rights and the United States’ image abroad. Over the course of American history, a little more than two-hundred years, the United States has transformed from a cluster of colonies to a world superpower. While that transformation had many internal aspects such as creating a constitution, electing leaders, and establishing a thriving economy, that same transformation also relied heavily on expanding territory, gaining power over other nations, and entering into relationships with those nations. Since America’s infancy, many of the country’s leaders have focused on securing Cuba as a state and desired its acquisition. All presidents from Polk to Buchanan tried to purchase Cuba from Spain (Herring 217). Around 1823, the same time that the United States was working to gain the current state of Texas, they were simultaneously working toward acquiring Cuba (Wylie 4). This illustrated the United States’ belief in the concept of manifest destiny. Litt 2 While the United States was working to grow and expand its territory, Cuba was similarly working to establish itself and gain independence from Spain. Jose Martin became the leader of the Cuban revolution and came to symbolize the Cuban people’s ability to gain liberty, justice, and equality (Voices of Cuba). Martin believed there should be a balance of power in world politics so that no one superpower could dominate smaller nation states. Spain eventually withdrew from Cuba, and the Cuban patriots reveled in their successful revolution. However, their independence was short lived when the USS Maine exploded leading to the “Splendid Little War.” Following this, Cuba became a virtual colony of the United States for over 50 years. After the Spanish-American War, the United States gave itself the right to intervene politically, economically, and agriculturally in Cuba’s development. The Cubans felt robbed of their revolution and saw the United States not as a defender and helper but as an aggressor (Voices of Cuba). This act changed the perception of the United States for the Cubans as well as other international onlookers. A shift of focus from the Old World to the New World took place at this time. With this shift came the Monroe Doctrine that declared a “non-colonization principle” to prevent occupation by European powers in the Americas (Herring 156). By the 1890s, America dominated Cuba’s economy by establishing sugar estates, mines, and ranches in Cuba (Herring 290). The United States helped liberate Cuba from Spanish rule at the end of the nineteenth century, but the U.S. only replaced the Spanish as colonial ruler of Cuba (Brown 294).Taking control of Cuba for sixty years following the Spanish-American war is an act still resented by the Cubans. In 1901, the Platt Amendment, which was attached to the Cuban constitution, claimed Cuba as a country that the U.S. vowed to “protect” (Dunne 448). Franklin Delano Roosevelt eventually gave up America’s “right” to intervene in Cuban affairs in 1934 in an attempt to Litt 3 respect the Treaty of Relations known as the Good Neighbor Policy. While this repealed the Platt Amendment, the United States continued to remain an influential power over the country (Herring 500). The constant American attempts to annex and control Cuba showed the United States’ perception of the “malleability of Cuban sovereignty” (Wylie 23). Through this malleability, United States leaders attempted to put a Cuban leader in power that would align with American thoughts, ideals, and policies. The United States first supported the rise of General Fulgencio E. Batista because he was an “ardent anticommunist and consistently supported U.S. foreign policy goals” (Wylie 4). Yet it quickly grew apparent that the Batista regime was corrupt. Fidel Castro, who grew up viewing the United States as an exploiter of his people, was especially outraged by American intervention (Munton 12). Castro believed that the government of the United States had been working to create an unfavorable image of the Cuban Revolution in hopes of halting the influence of revolutionary ideas (Castro 256). Castro, who was offered the opportunity to play baseball for the New York Giants as a pitcher, saw his role in the revolution as more essential to Cuban prosperity (Herring 687). He was a law student who quickly grew furious with the Batista regime and set out on a quest to bring political reform to Cuba (Voices of Cuba). As a young, eager, and energetic revolutionary, he helped organize and lead a guerilla war to overthrow the Cuban dictator Batista and came to power in 1959 (Carter 63). The basis of the revolution was to end Batista’s corrupt and brutal rule and to restore Cuban rights and democracy. Yet through the revolution, Batista was only replaced with the Communist Castro (Craughwell 185). He was praised as someone who would lead Cuba to democracy, and he pledged democratic sentiments while announcing he was not a Communist. Fidel Castro even quoted the American Declaration of Independence in his trial speech after the revolution. He Litt 4 explained that these self-evident rights are universal and belong to the Cuban people as well (Castro 115). Yet despite these proclamations he quickly began implementing socialist policies. Castro intended to provide political and economic reform to Cuba but came to symbolize anti- Americanism (Langley vii). Eventually, he wanted to lessen American influence on Cuba but still looked for allies that had the power to help Cuba maintain its independence. Castro admitted that history would absolve him for any crimes he committed during the revolution. It appeared that history did absolve him as he rose to power in Cuba and began drifting toward the Soviet Union (Munton 15). This immediately strained relations with the United States, and these tensions only continued to escalate through the Cold War. Once Castro came to power, America quickly grew nervous about having a socialist neighbor so close to home, especially a socialist neighbor that was leaning towards communism, as “the spread of communism was the defining geopolitical concern of the age – the organizing principle on which nearly every act and policy of U.S. foreign relations depended” (Rasenberger 17). Castro quickly seized farmland, executed prisoners, and nationalized companies and businesses making it clear that Cuba was becoming a Communist state (Craughwell 186). The turn from a ‘democratic revolution’ to communism was evident in the short time of nine months. Fidel had successfully made out of Cuba the first socialist republic in the Western Hemisphere (Rivero 63). During the administrations of President Eisenhower and President Kennedy, multiple plans to oust Castro were created, including the Bay of Pigs invasion (Carter 64). After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, tensions continued to escalate throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis (Pike 213). The missile crisis that soon ensued changed how Americans lived and how they viewed their Cuban neighbors south of Florida. The Bay of Pigs invasion similarly changed Americans’ view of their dearly beloved President Kennedy, which reflected on the world image of the Litt 5 United States as well. It is clear that from the very beginning of involvement with Cuba, the relationships that the United States built with Cuba as well as those relationships that they refuse to mend affect both nations. They are influential on the world, and they shape national and global policy. Today, relations with Cuba are essentially “swept under the rug.” Many Americans do not recognize the policies surrounding Cuba, restrictions placed upon both the government and people of Cuba, or how the poor relationship between the United States and Cuba remains a stalemate even years after the Cold War. In a telegram from Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev to President John F. Kennedy, he explained that the “little war in Cuba” could cause a chain reaction throughout the globe, and that is certainly what occurred (Office of the Historian). The United States was determined that the Communist domino-effect would not occur again; for this reason, the United States’ policies toward Cuba and other Latin American countries were greatly affected after Castro’s rise to power, and the United States began to isolate Cuba economically and diplomatically. Cuba’s economy survived by trade and subsidies from the Soviet Union, but with the collapse of the USSR, Cuba faced numerous hardships. A program of economic denial was instituted in order to demonstrate that communism had no future in the Western Hemisphere. It also showed that the Cuban regime could not serve the interests of the Cuban people and increased the cost of maintaining a Communist outpost in the Western Hemisphere for the USSR (Ball 12-13). Part of this Economic Denial Program consisted of denying goods that were vital to the operation of the Cuban economy such as industrial goods and transportation equipment (Ball 17). The embargo prevented Cuba from buying oil in the open market; the oil they produced was heavy and harmful to the economy and the environment and often led to fuel shortages and Litt 6 electricity rationing.
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