The extent of the personal involvement with Cuba among the exile community was viewed in macabre media frenzy over whether or not to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba. Many Cuban exiles used the young boy as a political pawn, oddly clamoring to wrest the boy from his father. The nearly insane fiasco illustrates the intensity of opinions over American foreign policy towards Cuba.
These opinions are further intensified in light of the "complex humanitarian emergency" that might result should Castro's regime fall suddenly and without institutional contingency plans (p. 83). American foreign policy towards Cuba has occasionally entertained the use of force, but Kennedy's Bay of Pigs invasion has since made military means untenable from a practical or a political standpoint. Still, the Bush administration championed plans that intended to "hasten" the demise of the Castro regime (p. 87). Those plans evoked frightening visions of another Iraq: the costly job of nation building. The use of Guantanamo Bay as the legally questionable zone for holding suspected terrorists added to the eerie nature of Cuba-American relations.
Historical precedent sometimes can, should, and often does inform American foreign policy toward Cuba. However, the United States has yet to fully articulate a plan for Cuba that would involve organic political, social, and economic change....
The notion that capitalism can gradually become entrenched in the Cuban consciousness is also not one that has informed American foreign policy, given the continued trade embargo and restrictions on travel. Cuba has somehow been singled out as a unique situation. Grassroots activism enacted through communication between Cubans and Cuban exiles may be one of the most effective means to foment a nonviolent change of government in Cuba. Eastern Europe offers many lessons for what could and might occur should the Castro regime crumble: especially since some countries have fared better economically and socially than others. The United States would do well to take cues from the experiences of other nations.
The Powell Commission echoed the prevailing fears running rampant in the United States, and not just in the Cuban exile community. Naming Cuba as a national security threat, suggesting that the Caribbean nation harbored terrorism, and generating fears of violence all helped to solidify the old-school anti-Castro stance that stymies more meaningful discourse. President Obama has recently helped ease some of the restrictions enforced by the Bush administration but American foreign policy towards Cuba remains uncertain.
