Copyright by Meghan Elizabeth Vail 2011 The Report Committee for Meghan Elizabeth Vail Certifies that this is the approved version of the following report: Media Cold Warriors of Operation Pedro Pan: Examining the impact of U.S. Cold War rhetoric on contemporary U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez Chandler Stolp Media Cold Warriors of Operation Pedro Pan: Examining the impact of U.S. Cold War rhetoric on contemporary U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba by Meghan Elizabeth Vail, BA Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degrees of Master of Arts and Master of Public Affairs The University of Texas at Austin May 2011 Dedication This report is dedicated to the men and women of Operation Pedro Pan. Acknowledgements Between June 2009 and April 2011, I had the privilege of interviewing many Cuban American men and women who arrived in the United States as children of Operation Pedro Pan. Although all of their comments and memories are not directly referenced in this report, these men and women have inspired me to continue to expand this research project after completing my degree programs at the University of Texas at Austin. I am indebted to these Pedro Panes for their candidness while discussing their experiences with me, as well as for their contributions to our collective knowledge of this covert endeavor. I am most grateful to Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez and Chandler Stolp for their mentorship as I prepared this professional report, as well as for their enthusiasm for the project when I first suggested it. I offer heartfelt thanks to my colleagues Megan Eatman, Lauren Gantz, Kristine Kotecki, and Connie Steel for their critical feedback at different stages of my writing. Jon Rogers and Joanna Schenke were wonderful writing companions and cheerleaders. Thanks are due to Alan and Kathy Vail for their unconditional support and love. Finally, I express my sincerest appreciation to and for Talitha May, whose encouragement and guidance at every step of the writing process have made all the difference in the world. This report would not have been possible without you. May 2011 v Abstract Media Cold Warriors of Operation Pedro Pan: Examining the impact of U.S. Cold War rhetoric on contemporary U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba Meghan Elizabeth Vail, MA; MPAff The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisor: Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez “Media Cold Warriors of Operation Pedro Pan” is a case study in which I examine the impact of 1960s Cold War rhetoric on contemporary U.S.-Cuba policy. In my report, I contextualize the 1960s covert U.S. endeavor Operation Pedro Pan and draw parallels between the media portrayals of Pedro Pan children from the 60s and the discourse utilized by adult Pedro Panes today to market their immigration experience to contemporary voters and younger generations of Cuban Americans. Operation Pedro Pan was intended to undermine the Castro Government and accomplish democracy in 1960s Cuba. I argue, however, that because of the contemporary publicity surrounding Pedro vi Panes and their use of the same Cold War rhetoric to characterize their immigration experiences, the children of Operation Pedro Pan will ultimately prevent the same achievement of democracy in Cuba that the covert endeavor purported to accomplish in the 1960s. vii Table of Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Operation Pedro Pan .......................................................................................2 The Legacy of U.S. Government Propaganda ................................................5 Chapter 1: An Open Door to Diplomacy .................................................................9 Cuban Environment For Change ....................................................................9 The Tentative Environment For Change in the United States ......................14 H.R. 4645.............................................................................................14 The New Cuban American Voter ........................................................16 Cold War Kids: The Children of Operation Pedro Pan ................................17 Cold War Voters: Maintaining the Status Quo.............................................22 Game Changer: The Elián González Affair.........................................23 Cuba as a campaign liability: Jeff Greene in Florida...........................24 From Cold War Subjects to Agents: Pedro Panes in the Cuban American Community ..........................................................................................25 Chapter 2: The Operation Pedro Pan Experience ..................................................27 Scholars: Operation Pedro Pan as U.S. Political Strategy ............................28 Prominent Literary Representations of Operation Pedro Pan.......................32 The “footnote is my memory”: the Writing of Carlos Eire .................32 Operation Pedro Pan in Children’s Literature ..............................................39 Children as Social Actors.....................................................................40 Sanitized story: Children of Flight Pedro Pan ....................................41 Writing the Revolution: Operation Pedro Pan in The Red Umbrella ..43 Operation Pedro Pan in Theater....................................................................50 Theater as nationality: Eduardo Machado ...........................................56 Chapter 3: Pedro Panes as Media Pawns ...............................................................58 Media Touts United States as a Safe Haven .................................................58 The Lost Apple: A Cold War Visual Media Tool .........................................67 viii Chapter 4: Pedro Panes in Contemporary Media...................................................70 The Miami Herald Operation Pedro Pan Database.......................................70 News Coverage of Operation Pedro Pan Reunions ......................................72 Operation Pedro Pan Group, Inc. and Formal Commemorative Events.......75 The Rhetoric of Operation Pedro Pan in Contemporary Visual Media........79 Still Escaping: the CNBC Documentary..............................................79 Pedro Panes, Social Media, and Blogs.................................................82 Chapter 5: Implications and Concluding Observations .........................................85 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................89 ix Introduction Since January 1961, the governments of Cuba and the United States have not shared formal diplomatic relations. One of the primary U.S. motivations for refusing to have normal diplomatic relations with Cuba is the same today as it was fifty years ago, when U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower suspended diplomatic ties with Cuba in response to the Cuban Government’s decision to progressively nationalize U.S. companies in the island, expropriate U.S. properties in Cuba, and engage in trade with the Soviet Union.1 The utmost authority over the Cuban Government from his position as Prime Minister of Cuba in 1959 until his resignation in February 2008, Fidel Castro remains the focal point of U.S. political hostility as the creator of a communist state in Cuba. Even after his resignation and the handing of power to his brother, Raúl Castro, Fidel Castro continues to have a palpable influence in the island. Fidel himself indicated that he would not withdraw from Cuban politics upon his resignation. “I am not saying goodbye to you,” he wrote to the Cuban people, “I only wish to fight as a soldier of ideas.”2 Describing the conditions needed for the United States to resume diplomatic relations with Cuba, Marifeli Pérez-Stable points to the Castro brothers and to the undemocratic legacy of Cuban politics. “Under either Castro brother, Cuba is a dictatorship,” she writes, “neither Castro brooks political opposition nor has anything but disdain for civil liberties.”3 Accordingly, Pérez-Stable writes, “the question ‘What is the 1 Louis A. Pérez, Jr., Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2003), 238-243. 2 James C. McKinley, Jr., “Fidel Castro Resigns as Cuba’s President,” New York Times, February 20, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/world/americas/20castro.html. 3 Marifeli Pérez-Stable, “Cuba in Transition: The Role of External Actors,” in The Obama Administration and the Americas: Agenda for Change, ed. Abraham F. Lowenthal, Theodore J. Piccone, and Laurence Whitehead (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2009), 124. 1 current state of governance and the rule of law in Cuba?’ lies at the core of current U.S. policy toward Cuba…without a democratic rule of law, there can be no progress toward an understanding with Havana.”4 President Barack Obama affirmed the impact that a Cuban shift to democracy would have on the quality of U.S.-Cuban relations when he commented in a March 2011 speech that the Cuban Government “must take some meaningful actions to respect the basic rights of their own people.”5 While U.S. progress towards an understanding with Havana may require (from the U.S. perspective) significant changes in both the leadership of the Cuban Government and the Cuban economic model – namely,