Embargo and Engagement: Assessing the Landscape of US-Cuba Relations

Abstract

US-Cuban history is filled with many historical events. The history goes way back in 1900s when Cuba was a Spanish colony in the western hemisphere. The USA helped Cuba fight and win war against the Spanish. After that the relations entered into another phase. Cuba even stayed under the US influence due to threat of colonial powers. But major shift in relations came after the end of WW-II in the 1959 when Fidel Castro overthrew the regime of Batista after the Cuban revolution started in 1953 and ended in 1959 and rose to power. Initially the USA backed this activity of Castro but later regrated when the demeanor of Cuba changed and Castro brought communism to the island and nationalized all the lands previously owned by the USA. This led to an embargo imposed by the USA on Cuba which further halted the relations. Then in the Cuban missile crisis put the last nail in the coffin when Cuba and USSR worked together on deployment of nuclear missiles on the island. The was the only time after Hiroshima and Nagasaki Incident that a nuclear was at the shore. Since then, the US sanctions on the island has been tightening and denting the relations further. Every President that came to the oval office has been following the identical policy regarding Cuba. The major significant change came in the second term of Barak Obama when he practically took actions to bring warmth in the US-Cuban relations.