The Nixon Administration and Cuba

University for Peace MA thesis, 2008

This research paper follows the evolution of US American policy towards Cuba from 1959 to present with a brief mention of historical trends. Throughout the text, the case is made that an embargo against Cuba is an erroneous policy to pursue. The general use and failure of sanctions is addressed and their efficacy questioned. Through the international support of UN General Assembly resolutions, it is shown that the embargo is unpopular. By comparison with the approaches of other countries, it is argued that the objectives of the USA’s policies could be better achieved through engagement with Cuba. The implications of the Helms-Burton Act brought forth and discussed. All through these topics, reasons are listed to justify the lifting of the trade blockade against Cuba.

UCLA Historical Journal, 1986

the Mantuan War summarizes in an abstract way the success of Richelieu and the failure of Olivares. The former was consistently quick to maneuver to the advantage, while the latter tended to bide his time, realizing that unexpected circumstances upset even the best laid plans. Yet Elliott agrees with Olivares himself that, in the end, chance favored his rival. Richelieu and Olivares by John Huxtable Elliott is a work of clarity and insight. The author masterfully compares the two men and manages to minimize the distance by which history has separated them. His analysis is excellent and succinct, yet far-reaching. Although some of the parallels of the two lives, thoughts, and policies may seem stretched, the points nevertheless validate the author's thesis. Frequent use of appropriate quotations from both ministers further substantiates the author's arguments.

The article seeks to analyze the role of the changes introduced by the administration of the former president Barack Obama in 2014—2016 into the bilateral US-Cuba relations; and the way in which the new presidential team are to reorganize this direction. The question on the attitude of Donald Trump towards currently existing policies aimed at solving the long-lasting problem with Cuban socialism is especially interesting since new US president has multiple times condemned the old ways practiced by the former establishment, but at the same time has shown readiness to act in a straightforward and confrontational manner. One of contributors of the paper, Santiago Perez Benitez, deputy director of the Center for International Political Studies in Havana, is attempting to provide his professional expertise in granting an insider view from the Cuban side, evaluating the progress made since the 2014 and interpret the notion of the upcoming policy changes in Washington. The importance of the Cuban issue in the framework of US. policy in the Western hemisphere is explained by the fact that a solution in this sphere could help remake a negative image of Pan-American policies that haunts Washington. Cuban issue has also been long considered a possible key for reestablish-ment of trust between the United States and Latin American countries. For president Trump, quite unpopular judging by the polls, Cuban issue also has a potential to earn support of his own constituents, who strongly support lifting the embargo from Cuba. However now after certain decisions of Donald Trump the future of US-Cuban relations seems to get gloomier by the day.

Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 1997

Hundreds of thousands of Cuban troops deployed to nearly every corner of the globe—that seemed to be the nightmare of every US administration from the mid-1970s to the end of the 1980s. From its own perspective, President Fidel Castro’s government attempted to use its activist foreign policy first to protect itself from hostile US policies, and second to leverage support from the Soviet Union and other communist countries for Cuba’s own domestic development.

The proximity of the United States of America is surely perceived as a threat by many Cubans. The regime's propaganda is very active in this respect. Yet there is no need to worry much about such a world power–provided it remains democratic. One has to be apprehensive primarily about totalitarian states. Vaclav Havel, in an exchange of letters with Cuban dissident, Oswaldo Paya 1

International Journal of Cuban Studies

The article proposes an approach to the US Cuba policy in the 21st century as public policy. We examine the core variables that drive this Cuba policy and their behaviour during the 21st century. We then identify the central axes of the policy and study their expressions. This allows us to explain the evolution of that policy across three administrations, the first year of a fourth and ten and a half legislative periods. The conclusions of the study provide a better understanding of the making and the nature of that policy. Consequently, it will help to explain the framework that the US Cuba policy creates to thwart the development of Cuba.

Cuba is probably one of the best examples of the significance of the democracy promotion discourse in US foreign policy: the efforts to democratise the island have been one of the main features in the US–Cuba bilateral relations since the end of the Cold War. even the embargo against the island has evolved from a tool to generate regime change to an instrument of democracy promotion to foster a democratic transition. today, the Cuban embargo, after the codifications of the 1990s, is intimately connected to a ‘Cuban democratic future’. moreover, in the last three decades, US presidents have committed themselves to promote democracy on the island, inaugurating a sort of ‘state policy’ with little or no evolutions or changes. the main aim of this two-part article is to explore the rationale behind US decennial efforts to promote a peaceful democratic change on the island, while trying to answer some crucial questions about US strategy in Cuba: Why promote democracy in Cuba? Why did democracy promotion become a long-lasting feature in US–Cuba relations? the first part deals with the security framework, and american economic interests in Cuba as a crucial push factor for democracy promotion, while the role of the Cuban-american community and the problems and perspectives of US strategy will be included in the second part, to be published in the next issue of the Journal.

2016

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the historical nature of the relationship of the United States and Cuba. Since 1959, the United States has employed various means to undermine the influence of the Cuban Revolution in the wider Latin American and Caribbean world. The way that this has been accomplished has evolved over time. The scope of this thesis is mainly the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period when the use of direct covert operations were no longer explicitly approved of by the U.S. government. Instead, the main tactics used by the years covered within this study were what political scientists would term soft power. This soft power subversion included the use of mass media propaganda, diplomatic pressuring, and economic sabotage. The purpose of this thesis is to put these methods of persuasion into their proper historical and political context, and to analyze the effectiveness of these efforts in both isolating Cuba in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as their effect on the trajectory of Cuban-U.S. relations.