Our Men in Havana?
Hughes, Peter Hughes and Chris
"Our Men in Havana?" In 1962, the year of the Soviet-American confrontation in the Cuban missile crisis, Congress passed legislation designed to prevent "the Marxist-Leninist regime in Cuba from extending, by force or...
...policy has failed to isolate Cuba, and that the changing international environment makes our present policy inadequate, Byrd believes that few critics seem willing to ask what the U.S...
...Without revealing any details President Nixon in 1971 stated that in the event nuclear submarines were serviced in Cuba, or from Cuba, it would be considered a violation of the U.S.-Soviet understanding...
...The consolidation of Communist rule in Cuba strengthens the legitimacy and aspirations of the Soviet regime itself...
...Concessions Byrd and others would like to see include a compensation for the confiscation of U.S...
...But a number of critics, including Byrd, do not believe that the embargo should be lifted as a prelude to negotiations...
...As the U.S...
...should be willing to make almost any sacrifice togive Communist nations a greater stake in continued and improved relations with the United States has proven to be increasingly costly and futile...
...Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, of little more than a decade ago, the Soviet Union has become a Caribbean power, with bases only ninety miles from the United States...
...position seems to have shifted, many congressional figures are nevertheless concerned about Soviet-Cuban behavior...
...Although this U.S...
...stands to gain from a resumption of relations with Cuba, and what the long-term consequenceswould be for the exiled free Cubans...
...Pat Holt, J. William Fulbright's Chief of Staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee obtained a visa to visit Cuba and subsequently prepared a staff report which was generally sympathetic to Castro and which urged a change in U.S.-Cuban relations...
...In a further effort to isolate Cuba the Organization 'of American States voted to expel Cuba from its membership, and the OAS countries also voted to sever all trade and diplomatic relations between member states and Cuba...
...Early in 1974 U.S...
...Until recently the United States had insisted that improved relations would come only if Cuba were to cease interfering in the internal affairs of the other American states, and to sever close political and military ties with the Soviet Union...
...surrender Guantanamo, an American naval base on the iAland...
...In 1962, the year of the Soviet-American confrontation in the Cuban missile crisis, Congress passed legislation designed to prevent "the Marxist-Leninist regime in Cuba from extending, by force or the threat of force, its aggressive or subversive activities to any part of the Western hemisphere...
...And this development has emerged at a time when efforts are increasing (supported by the Soviet Union) to evict the U.S...
...Byrd argues that if Cuba is interested in trade with the United States, and in access to our money market, the U.S...
...They were unanimous in their pronouncements: The time has come for a change in U.S.-Cuban relations...
...The U.S...
...government to vote for an end to Cuba's exclusion from the OAS at the Ecuador meeting last November...
...Just this last November, in Ecuador, the OAS almost repealed its trade embargo against Cuba...
...Senators Javits and Pell...
...credibility and consequently lead to a more adventurous policy on the part of our adversaries in the international arena...
...Shortly after the Holt visit sympathetic American newsmen were also permitted to enter Cuba, including former McGovern campaign manager Frank Mankiewicz, as were U.S...
...If the Communist nations of the world no longer appear to be the threat they once were then the logical conclusion can only be that the power relations of the early postwar period are antiquated and designed for an era now bygone...
...has to face up to is whether it is best to accept that the Soviet camel is already in the tent and has to be lived with on its own terms, or to continue a difficult, and in political terms perhaps increasingly costly effort to discredit the animal in the hope of minimizing his potential for damage...
...It reinforces the impression of a Soviet counterweight to the United States in Latin America and provides a physical capability for Soviet access toother areas of the continent...
...moves towards a normalization of relations with Cuba it would, therefore, serve us well to consider the words of Senator Harry Byrd: "We cannot afford to delude ourselves about the nature of Castro's regime...nor should we underestimate the challenge to American security that exists because of Soviet-Cuban ties....Castro must drastically change his ways if the United States is to change its present policy toward Cuba...
...On a congressional level initial steps in this direction have already been undertaken...
...Senate to warn against precipitous U.S...
...Such a policy can only undermine U.S...
...Given American reluctance to take a strong stand, it seems only a matter of time—probably no later than the April 1975 meeting of OAS foreign ministers in Washington—before hemispheric policy toward Cuba changes...
...Until recently -all OAS members but Mexico complied with the decision...
...An indication of their shift in attitude came when the Latin American Caucus of the United Nations, which had isolated Cuba from the group for over a decade, permitted Cuba to resume participation in January...
...The new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Sparkman (D.-Ala...
...from the Panama Canal Zone...
...In the name of detente, however, the United States appears willing to swallow much...
...action...
...he needed to escape from the shadows of Nixon's diplomatic legacy, and Cuba was the logical choice...
...Moreover, other countries in the hemisphere, for reasons of their own, seemed to want normalized relations with Cuba...
...Morris Rothenberg, of the Miami Center for Advanced International Studies, has recognized: "The Soviet presence in Cuba...
...strengthens the image of Soviet power in the overall East-West context...
...During the intervening years, however, changing global power relations and particularly the alleged change in relations between the world's superpowers, have given new momentum for a change in U.S.-Cuban relations...
...The pundits suggested that President Ford might want to initiate some major foreign policy overture of his own...
...Twelve of the twenty-one voting delegates favored repeal, only two votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority...
...should not give away the only leverage it has without getting something in return...
...In general, the new spirit of reconciliation vis-a-vis Cuba is not so much the result of any policy shift on the part of Castro and the Soviet Union—indeed in every official pronouncement Castro has continued to reaffirm adherence to those policies which resulted in the Soviet-American confrontation, and which led to Cuba's expulsion from the OAS—as it is the result of the ambiguities of detente...
...Speculation that a change in U.S.-Cuban relations was imminent increased further in 1974 when Gerald Ford became President...
...has begun to speak out on what the possible result of a change in U.S.-Cuban relations might be...
...This lack of protest has come to be regarded as an acceptance of the Russian conduct, and it has raised increasing concern in Congress...
...In 1970 the Soviet Union established a nuclear submarine base in Cienfuegos, in violation of an agreement with the United States not to deploy strategic offensive weapons on the island...
...As Mr...
...It is used perhaps more than any other single development to demonstrate to the Soviet people and the rest of the world the validity of the Soviet claim that victorious communism is irreversible and is indeed the 'wave of the future.' "The basic issue the U.S...
...As possibly the only member in the U.S...
...The new Soviet presence in the Caribbean gives the Soviet Union more substantial advantages than just its immediate strategic gains...
...interest in discussing a change in relations with Cuba is predicated upon Castro's reported willingness to talk to Secretary of State Kissinger if the economic embargo against Cuba is unconditionally lifted...
...Although proponents of normalized U.S.-Cuban relations assert that U.S...
...Byrd also rejects out of hand Castro's demand that the U.S...
...Senator Fulbright introduced major legislation (Senate Bill 3880) in the Ninety-third Congress which would repeal the major anti-Cuba legislation of the early sixties...
...property (The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission has certified claims of losses by American citizens totalling $1.8 billion), freer access to the news media representatives of their respective countries, greater freedom of movement between the two peoples, and an easing of Cuba's internal repression...
...As Senator Byrd has argued, the "Soviet submarine visits to Cuba illustrate just how shallow detente is," and he continues, "If the Soviet Union persists in violating agreements there can be no detente...
...has recently added his voice to those calling for such overtures...
...supporters of normalized U.S.-Cuban relations began to make a concerted effort for their case, with the hope of influencing the U.S...
...Fulbright's eagerness for a resumption of normal relations with Cuba is, needless to say, not shared by all his colleagues...
...The United States abstained, both out of sensitivity to the wishes of our hemispheric neighbors and out of fear of causing an uproar in Congress...
...Congress also passed legislation prohibiting American assistance to Cuba or any country which assisted Cuba...
...The argument that the U.S...
...The Soviets have continued to violate the agreement regularly ever since—and there has been no protest from the U.S...
...According to recently published sources, only one month after the Nixon warning a Soviet nuclear submarine sailed into Cienfuegos...
...Since 1971 a number of Senators, including Fulbright, Church, Mathias, Kennedy, and Pell, and Congressmen including Massachusetts Democrat Michael Harrington, have introduced legislation seeking a normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba...
...Gurney, Helms, and McClure have all spoken on the floor of the U.S...
...Senate to know Cuba well from personal experience, including a stay in Cuba as a newspaper correspondent when Castro came to power, Senator Harry Byrd (Ind.-Va...
...A number of Senators, including Buckley, Byrd (Va...
Vol. 8 • April 1975 • No. 7
