| September 16 |  |
Editor says, what if the earlier collapse of Communism transformed US-Cuba relations? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1988, the United States announced it would resume full diplomatic relations with Cuba in January, ending a break of more than 28 years between Washington and Havana; with the Soviet Union having dissolved and economic assistance negotiations with France having been stalled since 1986, there was considerable sentiment on both ends of the Florida Straits in favor of resuming formal U.S.-Cuban diplomatic ties.
Elián González SurfacesWhile the announcement drew vehement protests from Florida's Cuban exile communuity, most other Americans welcomed the end of the U.S.-Cuba estrangement. One sector of American society was especially happy with the decision -- the re-opening of Cuba's borders paved the way for Major League Baseball to bring a huge new influx of Cuban players into the United States, and that influx would have a dramatic impact on MLB pennant races in the next two-plus decades.
The newly restored bonds between the United States and Cuba would be further solidified in 1999 when a joint U.S.-Cuban naval search & rescue mission retrieved the survivors of a shipwreck; one of those survivors, a six-year-old boy named Elián González (pictured), would later grow up to become a pivotal figure in the movement to end one-party rule in Cuba.
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Necessary Evil Source: New Statesman Magazine Labels: Elian Gonzalez, Cuba, Great Britain, Seventies, Labour.
~ IIRC we had a Republican president in '88...maybe, just like "Only Nixon could go to China," only a Republican could end the Cuba situation.
~ That IS possible because Kennedy, a Democrat, envoked the embargo because of the big Sugar, who lost major business holdings and also because of his ties to the Mob, who wanted the Cuban casinos back under their control.
~ I wish Gerald Ford had ended it in 1976 following in Nixon's China footsteps so to speak. We don't have to be best buddies but we are and have always been neighbors.
~ Actually, Kennedy established the embargo to pacify the political right, which was foaming at the mouth after JFK's refusal to launch a full-scale invasion of Cuba in support of the exile army which landed at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961.
Kennedy had been suckered by Eisenhpower-era holdovers among his advisera, who hasd told him limited support would be enough only to change their tune the instant the exiles came under fire from a Cuban army which turned out not to be, after all, willing to throw down its arms at the first opportunity. The same people who had told the President limited support would be sufficient now were saying they had always expected that a full U.S. invasion would be needed and warning that Kennedy would be impeached if he didn't go along. The Bay of Pigs operation itself had been planned under Eisenhpower by a working group chaired by Vice-President Richard Nixon, whose own ties to Cuban exiles would come into public view during Watergate.
The embargo was a compromise intended to punish the Castro regime and encourage popular opposition to it while pacifying those in Congress who thought Kennedy was "soft" on Castro.
~ Would that it were. If we picked up post-communism relations while the Soviet Union fell, the world would be a much prettier place.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
