39 thoughts on “About time!”

  2. Hell, there is no chance of lifting the embargo on Cuba even now. The Republicans would not stand for it. Other than the bay of pigs and CIA exploding cigars, the worst thing I recall about this whole thing was Jack Parr, use to do the Tonight Show before Carson, going down to Cuba and talking to Castro. Said he thought Castro would be great for Cuba and everybody. Boy did he get it wrong.

    1. Do you know any thing about Fulgencio Batista? Castro may not have been great for Cuba, but a lot of Cuba’s problems were the direct result of this country’s embargo. By the way, I was in the Marine Corps back in those early days and the frequently heard rumor was that the Marines would soon be in Cuba. Guantanamo Bay is still our colonial outpost and so the USA is not in a great position to argue human rights.

    4. Castro has turned out to be a nasty little despot, brutally repressing dissent or any other form of free expression. But we shouldn’t overlook how the US misread its hand and misplayed its cards in the years immediately before and after The Revolution, misconstruing what was essentially a domestic socialist uprising, isolating Cuba, and forcing it to seek economic and military succor from the USSR — thereby turning Cuba into a Soviet client-state and a player on the stage of what used to be called “the inevitable march toward world communism.”

      Also in this regard, long before he turned his zealot’s charisma on Jack Paar — indeed, long before la revolución‘s success was out of doubt, while Fidel and Che were still fighting rearguard guerilla actions in the Sierra Maestra mountains — Castro convinced New York Times reporter Herbert Matthews that he was the ticket to fulfilling Cuba’s glorious destiny.

    1. Some embassies I have to go to are fortresses which take the idea of “this is OUR territory”very seriously. Others are rented offices in anonymous office blocks.
      Shockingly, some countries don’t need military patrols around the perimeters of their embassies.

      1. I suspect the thinking is that US embassies anywhere are vulnerable to attack from mid-east or other enemies. When you’re a big target you have to act accordingly.

      1. The Donald’s casinos filed for bankruptcy four times since the first one opened in the ’80s. The short-fingered vulgarian no longer has control of, or a significant ownership interest in, any of those Atlantic City casinos or their holding company.

        The bankruptcy reorganization folks chased Trump out of the A.C. casino business for the same reason Michael Corleone gave in getting rid of Moe Greene: “Your casino loses money. Maybe we can do better.”

        Unlike Moe’s partner Hyman Roth, Donald Trump does not always make money for his partners. He has no more chance of opening a casino in Cuba than he has of becoming the next leader of the free world — the same chance, that is, that Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista had of surviving the party celebrating New Year’s 1959: Nada.

        1. really glad to hear all the prediction from a true casino expert Ken. Since maybe you didn’t know…it was a joke.

          1. I know, I know. It’s just that I’ve got a bug up my ass about the candy-corn-colored, oft-bankrupt pretend mogul. Though I hope he (Trump, not the bug-up-my-ass — although they’re tough to tell apart) continues to lead the Republican pack, the better to lay bare the nastiness and hypocrisy of today’s GOP.

            I was also trying to channel my umbrage in a humorous direction, Randy. Sorta. Sorry if I missed and got some on you.

            (As for being a casino maven, all the expertise I’ve ever needed is this: The House always wins — unless you’re counting cards at blackjack, which, for that reason, will get you banned, or worse, from what the casinos euphemistically call “the gaming industry.” The only time you’ll find me in a casino nowadays is when pausing to kibitz the craps players on an occasional outing to the poker rooms.)

  7. This development is a step forward. We do need to speak about the status of Guantanamo. Legacy of imperialism. Should be returned to Cuba.

    American casinos in Cuba. No way. Remember what the Mafia and Batista did to Cuba before Castro. Why does the USA feel it has the right to dictate to the Caribbean and Central America and South America? Racial and religious bigotry and economic selfishness?

    Carter has cancer, but he had vision. He was one of the few post 1960 Presidents to offer an olive branch to Cuba and Castro. Right wingers clobbered him for it.

    Diplomatic recognition is a first step. But watch out for Coca-Cola,Reynolds Tobacco, junk food companies and the oil companies. They only see a new market for their surplus products.

    Human rights? JFK tried to assassinate Fidel Castro. Who are we to preach civil rights outside of our own country? Unless everything is perfect here?

    This is a good step in the right direction. Onward!

    John J. Fitzgerald

  9. Shame we haven’t yet taken down our flag way over on the opposite side of the island, the one flying above the prison camp in Gitmo.

  10. I put the embargo, continuing long after the end of the Cold War and resumption of ‘normal’ relations with Vietnam, China and the USSR, down to sheer vindictiveness. Silly little country refused to roll over when faced with American military might.

    I was probably wrong in that though, I suspect it had more to do with US internal politics and the Cuban vote in Florida.

    But either way, it was long overdue for scrapping.

    cr

  11. People seem to have forgotten that it was a ‘liberal’ Democrat, not conservatives, that created this embargo.

    While it is definitely time for this anachronism to go away from a pragmatic perspective, it is still one heck of a mess there. In the time leading up to this photo-op, the Cuban government rounded up and imprisoned perceived ‘dissidents’, adding to the hundreds (or thousands) stuck in Cuban jails without charges or fair trial.

    It’s still a hellhole, but free trade is one of the most effective weapons against totalitarianism.

  12. This makes me think of Stuart Klager, a truly spectacular HS social studies teacher. He taught all of the history/social studies electives at my HS, I was his pupil several times over. I honestly can’t remember which class he predicted this, but I remember him saying that he thought Washington would engage with Cuba again, but that it would take another 20 years. That would’ve been between 1994 and 1996.
    Stuart Klager, foreign policy psychic.

  13. The ’50s US cars on the other side of the fence were a nice touch. Haven’t been able to figure out what the black one is, but the other two are (red)’57 & ’55 Chevs.

    1. Whatever its shortcomings — and they are multifold — Cuba has got to have the world’s greatest per capita collection of backyard, shade-tree mechanics, who (notwithstanding the embargo on spare parts) have kept these pre-Revolution motor-city behemoths rumbling away lo these many decades.

    2. I’ve been to Cuba twice in the last 10-12 years and seeing the old American cars is a real treat. Many have really wild new(ish) paint jobs.

  14. I purely subjectively perceive Castro to have always been a power monger, regardless of his ideology. It wouldn’t have mattered if his predecessor were pure as the driven snow. (Bet the U.S. would have supported Castro were his ideology more or less that of Batista.) IIRC, Castro tried to overthrow the gov’t several years earlier and was imprisoned. It’s a wonder he wasn’t executed.

    That said, if the U.S. wanted to reduce the likelihood of a Castro coming to power, it shouldn’t have supported/tolerated the likes of Batista. Might have avoided the missile crisis.

    1. Batista served U.S. corporate and business interests in Cuba — most importantly, those of the United Fruit Company. That’s all we asked of a Latin American caudillo in those days. I’m not so sure we ask much more of them now.

  15. I’d been arguing for an end to the embargo way back in the 1980s. It was clear that it was doing no good and that opening trade would do a lot to breaking down the anti-US ideologies. What happened in China later in the 1980s is a good example of what could have happened in Cuba – Cuba wouldn’t be a global powerhouse but money talks and the merchants would help tame the government. Besides, the Kissinger Cult which believes sticking your fingers in your ears going “nyah nyah nyah, I can’t hear you!” while making absurd demands of the other nations is “good diplomacy” was always rather obviously well beyond fringe lunatic. Reagan was a Kissinger fan and falsely credited with bringing about the end of the Soviet Union but the cultists would never entertain the idea that the Soviet Union broke down without any help from the USA and from a historical perspective the Russians have been much more amenable to nuclear controls and disarmament.

    Anyway, this is a good start for the reformation of Cuba but I still think things are happening far too slowly. Why are the general US public still prohibited from visiting Cuba without special permission? I’m glad Obama’s office has finally pulled this off though – it’s good governance even if it means losing a lot of the Cuban vote in the elections.

    1. Obama is embracing his lame duck status to good end. One wonders, though, if Democratic presidential candidates are now going to be bombarded with Cuba questions.

    1. There is a hotlink:
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-33919484
      ..in Jerry’s first sentence; though I agree that hotlinks here can sometimes be hard to distinguish.

      Basically, this is a picture of the flag-raising ceremony during the re-opening of the US Embassy in Cuba; finally, because we severed diplomatic relations with them 54 years ago.

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