In June 1963, the New York Daily News ran an editorial "What is our Cuba Policy?" In view of recent Obama administration announcements on Cuba, I summarize the editorial here.
Some five weeks ago at New York University's conference center in Ardsley-on-Hudson, Freedom House assembled 25 serious thinkers on Latin America, cold war problems, etc., and asked them to discuss Western Russia - meaning Khrushchev-Castro Cuba.
Among those present were Leo Cherne, Roscoe Drummond, Christopher Emmet, Brig Gen. S.L.A. Marshall (Ret.), Edgar Ansel Mowyer, and Vice Adm,. Charles Wellborn Jr. (Ret.). The report of the three-day discussions is released today, and is very interesting.
The distinguished guests--most of them generally friendly to the Kennedy Administration--could not figure out just what U.S. policy toward Western Russia is.
But they agreed that it should be (1) to boot Soviet military and political power out of Cuba, (2) to stop Red subversion and troublemaking all over Latin America, and (3) to free the Cuban-people from Castro's brutal police state.
The panel was unimpressed by the fears of various Kennedy advisers that strong measures short of war would "escalate" (current fashionable term) into general nuclear war. Foolish risks, they felt, should not be run; but neither should foolish fears be given too much weight.
These panelists are solid citizens and patriots. They are not hysterical, not war hawks. Their report merits respect and serious consideration--both of which we earnestly hope it may get in the White House.
In this general connection --
Paul Nitze
--a highly touted Assistant Defense Secretary, warns that Soviet Russia is probably about to get tough again toward the free world, as a concession to the tough talking Chinese Reds.
What does the White House do in that case? Does it stand up to the Red Hitler and tell him to go to hell (the only language he understands); or does it wobble and weasel, as it has long done toward Cuba, and thereby contribute some more aid to the Communist plan for enslaving the human race?
We'll see what we'll see.
Comment:
Does Obama's plan expand freedom into Cuba? Dictator Raul Castro says the country will stay socialist. Will the Castro brothers visit the White House and State Department?
This quick action on Cuba by the administration, while Ukraine, Israel, Hong Kong and other nations are in crisis states and the US reels from cyber threats from a dozen nations, threaten freedom in the US and the world, seems intended to make Obama look like a leader on the foreign front. Meantime the US could be on the verge of a race war in major cities, New York, St, Louis, and anywhere in California, and more Americans could be beheaded abroad.
Obama's legacy will not be possible success in Cuba. It will be global as well as domestic tensions.
Jim Patterson, Diplomat and Editor
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