Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous CUBA CUBA In the past fifty years we have witnessed the end of the cold war, the end of communism in a vast majority of nations as well as the rise of the United States to being the sole world power. But while the world has greatly changed over the past half-a-century, there has been little change in the Cuban-American relationship. Since the rise of Fidel Castro to power in the early nineteen fifties, the United States has all but cut off all relations with the Cuban government. It has now been thirty-nine years since the United States first imposed its various sanctions on the Cuban government and even though Cuba has faced great hardship and misfortune in recent years due to these sanctions, the United States to this day is still refusing to “talk” with Castro and the Cuban nation to work on a reduction of the embargo and to try and befriend a nation that is ninety miles off of the cost of Florida. This paper will discuss the view of most Cubans and even some people of the United States that the time has finally come to lift the various sanctions off of Cuba and start trading with this highly resourceful and educated society. In order to fully understand the reasons that the United States severed all ties with Cuba one must look back into the history of how the Cuban nation was formed and the situations that led to Cuba’s so-called independence. The beginning of the end of the Cuban-American relation dates back to 1898. In April of this year, a U.S. ship, the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. This explosion was the factor that led the United States to declare war on Spain. Previous to this date, Spain had ruled Cuba but after the U.S. easily defeated the Spanish army, Cuba was to be made an independent nation, or that’s at least how the United States wanted the Cubans to feel. According to John Crow, “The United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Island [Cuba] except for the pacification of thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the Island to its people.” (Crow 684) The majority of Cubans saw this switch in rulers from Spain to the United States as just that, a change in oppressors. There were few Cubans that supported this annexation of Cuba into the United States control. The majority of the people who supported this were the rich and elite. One such person who opposed the U.S. control over Cuba was Jose Marti. Mr. Marti lived in exile in New York for many years until returning to Cuba in 1895. Upon his arrival in Cuba, Marti’ was declared a national hero by the Anti-American supporters. It are the beliefs and ideas of Jose Marti’ that Fidel Castro later based his own ideals upon. In 1882, Marti’ wrote that Cuban independence was a process and not a single event. He said that it would take lots of preparation and dedicated organization in order to achieve independence. (Perez 145) It was this thought process that was instrumental in the “defining of the most exalted version of Cuba Libre: independence from Spain and the United States. (Perez 146) It were these beliefs that lead to the establishment of the Cuban Revolutionary Party in April of 1892. The goal of this establishment was to liberate Cuba. Marti never lived to achieve this goal of freedom from an oppressing country as he soon passed away in 1895 during the first battle against the Spanish Army. (Mathias) After the Spanish were defeated, the United States encouraged Cuba to form their own constitution. After reviewing the draft form, the U.S. decided to incorporate an amendment that “gave the U.S. the right to oversee the Cuban economy, veto international commitments, and intervene in domestic politics at will.” (Skidmore 265) This addition was called the Platt amendment and became an item of protest for many Cubans. The main American supporter of this amendment was Orville Platt. He was a U.S. senator that felt that the U.S. should have a right to intervene in Cuban affairs so long as they posed a possible threat to the well being of American interests. During the time period of 1901 to 1925, Cuba was going through many different changes of power and therefore the U.S. acted on its so-called “right” to involve the American military. Even with this American intervention, there was still much corruption in the Cuban government. One major player in this game of “improper” elections was Gerardo Machado. In 1925 Machado was elected President of the Cuban nation. Over the next several years he led an extremely corrupt and self-destructive government. Finally in 1933, the opposition to his rein of ruling was so great that a military coup was staged and he was removed from office. This movement was led by Fulgencio Batista and eventually caused Machado to flee Cuba thereby allowing Batista to enter Cuban politics from 1934 to1959. During Bastita’s 25 years as a politician in Cuba, he was President for three consecutive terms. During the times that he was not President, he still ruled from behind the scene. As in the case of Machado, Batista had the backing of the U.S. government. Even with this backing both of these people led in a corrupt manner. With the strong military backing of the U.S. they in essence had the ability and rights to do whatever they deemed necessary. This all came to an end however in 1959. Until 1959 Cuba greatly depended on the U.S. as it being its sole trading partner. The U.S. imported from Cuba sugar and for this reason Cuba was able to maintain a fairly decent economy. This however was not satisfactory to many of the Cubans. They figured that they would be able to maintain a good economy even if they were fully independent from the U.S. control. On December 31, 1958, Batista fled Cuba as the U.S. and most of the Cuban people had withdrawn all support for him. This opened up the door for Fidel Castro and an army of Cuban revolutionary guerrillas to march into and take control of Havana without any resistance. (Perez 312) Castro being the nationalist that he is wanted once and for all a truly independent Cuba. He disliked the way in which the then current Cuban economy was setup. There was a large discrepancy between the rich and the poor with very little if any middle class people. In order to combat this problem, Castro gained the likeness of the majority of people by the Agrarian Reform Law of May 1959. This restricted the ownership of land among the rich and spread it more equally among the poor. (Perez 320) He also tried to improve the Cuban balance of trade in Cuba’s favor as well as to become a nation that would produce more than just one good, sugar. (Perez 337) It were these types of reforms that started to scare the United States into thinking of the Cuban Nation as a communist one. People in the United States who were anti-Castro for whatever reasons they may have had were playing out on this “new communist” government and showing how it can and will threaten the very well being of the United States. Even some of Fidel Castro’s own people spoke out against his new reforms. One of Castro’s oldest friends, Major Huberto Matos chose to break from the “Fidelista Line.” He resigned from the Cuban armed forces and issued a letter that attacked the growth of the communist influence that Castro was helping to instill in Cuba. (Skidmore 278) While Castro and Cuba were losing their relations with the United States, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for both political and economic support. By purchasing oil from the Soviets and forcing the American refineries to process the Soviet oil to make it useful for industry to use, President Eisenhower suspended the Cuban sugar quota that had been in effect in the United States. To retaliate against the once again overly controlling Americans, the Cuban government proceeded to confiscate all the rest of U.S. property that was in Cuba. This being the final straw with the U.S., we soon placed an embargo on all trade with Cuba except for medicine and essential food. As Cuba still continued towards a communist government by confiscating all property and making it government owned there were mass defections of Cubans to the United States. Most of these people were of a previous upper-middle class stature. Upon arrival to the U.S. they continued and aided in the protest against the communism that was arising in Cuba. Part of the U.S.’s retaliation against Cuba was to attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro. After several attempts of assassinating Castro by the Central Intelligence Agency it seemed as though the only way to end the communist reign in Cuba was to invade. In April of 1961 the newly elected President John F. Kennedy gave the go ahead for an exile invasion. The CIA had to recruit 2,600 Cuban refuges to carry out this American enforced revolution. The major attack was known as the Bay of Pigs. This was a total failure. As soon as the revolutionaries landed on Cuban soil, they were defeated. The Americans never send in reinforcements, as it is the opinion of Daniel W. Fisk that “U.S. policy must change for Castro to Change.” This invasion also opened up the doors for one of the scariest and most detrimental to the American’s well being in the twentieth century. In 1962 the Soviets send nuclear missiles to Cuba that were aimed directly at American soil. In order to have these missiles removed from Cuban territory the U.S. was forced to make a deal with the soviets that it would stay out of all Cuban business and allow socialism (communism) to continue in Cuba. Cuba’s relationship with the Russian government increased heavily over the next few years as the Soviets formed a trade alliance that was extremely similar to the one that Cuba had once help with the U.S. Cuban exports were purchased at higher than market prices by the Soviet nations and in return the Soviets sold Cuba oil at below market prices. (Class Notes 4-6-00) This relationship continued between Cuba and the Soviets until the late 1980’s. In the mid to late 1980’s, many of Cuba’s highly ranked officials left their home country in search of a new life. Many other of Cuba’s officials were murdered or exhaled by Castro and what was left of his regime. Then Cuba in 1991 started to face major financial burden as the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba’s major importer and exporter was no longer there to support Cuba. By 1992, all Soviet aid to Cuba had ceased. Now that Cuba could no longer trade with either the Soviet Union or the United States, they had to confront the idea of the so-called “double embargo”. (Skidmore 292) This lack of a good economy has led the Cubans to be unhappy with Castro’s rule. In order to prevent any uprising that might further hinder Castro’s current rule over Cuba, he was forced to increase his authoritarian rule over his country. At this point in time the United States is in a position once again to rid Cuba of Castro’s rule and move Cuba towards a more democratic government. But something is holding the U.S. from once again intervening, Pride. The United States is in a fairly good state of economic balance right now and weather or not Cuba is led by a communist dictator or not. Fidel has survived many U.S. Presidents and until he is “dethroned” there is no rush in risking the lives of Americans and/or Cubans. (Class Notes 4-6-00) In fact Americas ego is at stake right now as well. If we were to lift the embargo while Castro is still in power then we would have to admit to ourselves that we were in fact wrong and the American government never likes to look like a fool in front of anyone, especially the whole world. In contrast to the government’s belief, it is the opinion of Daniel W. Fisk that “U.S. policy must change for Castro to Change.” (Aronson 35) Castro has brainwashed the Cuban people into believing that the U.S. is evil as it is the reason that the Cuban economy is so deficient. The people of Cuba believe that Castro is the greatest ruler due to the fact the he can solely defy the “strong Americans.” In order for the U.S. to succeed with its ultimate goal of ridding Castro from government, I foresee two options for them. The first would be to lift the embargo and let the Cuban people see that Castro is not the greatest as he would have to allow for some American culture into to Cuba and with that democratic views would surely follow. The second option for the United States is to do what we have been doing for the past decade. That should we sit back and wait for Castro to die and hopefully with him would go all of the “horrible” communistic views that he instills over the people of Cuba. I feel that the longer that the U.S. waits to lift this embargo, the longer that Castro will be considered the great ruler that he is. It is almost like the saying goes; better not count your eggs before they hatch. The longer we wait the more the possibility that another leader will gain the respect and honor that Castro has and then what are we to do? Wait another 4/10 of a century before we can have a good economic and social relationship with a small country island that is ninety miles off the cost of Florida? 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