Cuban Trade Embargo
Time for a Change: Forty-Two Years of Isolation and Deprivation Since the day when President Kennedy issued the US-Cuban Trade Embargo which prevented any trade being done with Cuba either directly or indirectly it has left the island of Cuba isolated and deprived of the wealth of tourism. "The United States never remembers and Latin America never forgets," is a well-known Latin American cliche which illustrates the depth of Cuban distrust about the United States and the everlasting revelation of Americans manifesting about Cuban dictatorship. Americans today ponder upon the question in which haunts politicians of the past and present, "How the United States could have let a small island nation only ninety miles from its shores produce a communist regime that has outlasted the USSR?" (Paterson 263). On the contrary, Cuba continues to be outraged at the way the United States still undermines and ignores Cuban dominion. The issue at hand is as we (the United States) have embarked on the twenty-first century we still remain entangled in an economic war of slow destruction with an island market begging for U.S. dollars . After forty-two years of isolation, deprivation and failed objectives against the island of Cuba, it's time for a
change, a revision, the lifting of a failed trade embargo. Can we ever move on and change the embargo when flamboyant leaders continue to wave the bloody flag and open decade-old wounds. A European diplomat asked a Clinton official, "Why should the U.S. maintain economic sanctions against Castro if it is willing to trade with Hanoi and Beijing?" a senior Clinton official could only reply, "History matters" (Fedarko 54). History matters to the United States, but the history of prosperity of the Cuban people also matters as they remember history before the trade embargo. It is difficult for a generation of Americans to forget events such as the failed military blockade of the Bay of Pigs and threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the threat of nuclear war was at hand. However it is also difficult for Cubans to forget the way their country was the second wealthiest country of the world before the embargo when their impoverished rate was substantially lower than it is today (Mc Allister 32). Ironically, many Americans continue to harbor an intense antipathy toward Fidel Castro and his communist Cuba. Although they are open to President Bush having close relations to red China. The American public is unwilling to cooperate in reinstating trade with Cuba which might, in any way, benefit the well-hated dictator. If history is of such importance to the United States, let us further examine it. In 1972 President Nixon went to China (a country of communist regime) to normalize trade relations with them, why can't we do the same with Cuba? In 1977 Jimmy Carter lifted the travel ban against Vietnam only two years after the end of the Vietnam War, how come after forty-two years the Unite! d States can't do the same with Cuba? Right now an American can travel to Iran, where they have not only held American hostages for as long as 444 days, but have openly despised our country entitling it, "The Great Satan." Why must Cuba be the exception in the rule, considering embargo? "Americans are hell-bent on punishing Fidel Castro for his anti-American record" but are significantly oblivious to the fact that they are punishing the Cuban people and not their dictator (Curbing Castro 17). vote as
Some common words found in the essay are:
Bay Pigs, Overwhelming UN, USSR Paterson, Jesse Helms, Bill Clinton's, President Nixon, Hanoi Beijing, Latin American, Theodore Roosevelt, United Nations, trade embargo, forty-two isolation deprivation, isolation deprivation, cuban people, president nixon, trade cuba, forty-two isolation, bay pigs, economic war, un vote, failed military,
Approximate Word count = 1482
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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