Weekend Edition January 13-15, 2012
A Tale of Two Countries
What Did Cuba Ever Do to Us?
“…they cannot forgive us that we are just so close to them, that we have made a Socialist revolution under the very nose of the United States!”
– Fidel Castro, April 16, 1961
“And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”
– English book of Common Prayer, 1662
After 53 years, we ask. Did the Cuban revolution accomplish its
goals? Likewise, what happened to the US, which has relentlessly tried
to block Cuba’s revolutionary path?
After the January 1959 revolutionary victory Washington’s elite
understood that in Fidel Castro they might face serious rebelliousness
to the accepted and enforced notion: Washington rules this hemisphere.
In 1954, Washington punished President Jacobo Arbenz for
nationalizing United Fruit company property in Guatemala (a US-backed
coup d’etat), to again dramatize how the US treated disobedience.
Despite the long history of US punishment of insubordinate Latin
American leaders, Castro and compañeros remained focused on goals
emerging in the 1860s’ revolt against Spain: independence; sovereignty;
social justice.
When faced with Washington’s intransigent opposition Cuba’s leaders
accepted the consequences of a kind of insurance policy written for
their revolution in Moscow. They had no other protectors.
They knew that Latin American leaders who failed to toe the US line faced: assassination or military coups.
Unlike US influence, the Soviets would not own Cuban property. The US
held the best land in Cuba, the biggest sugar mills, mines, telephone
and utility companies, banks, politicians, casinos and much more. The
Soviets never possessed an acre of Cuban land. They did, however, expect
reciprocal ideological compliance.
From 1959 through the mid 1970s, Cubans became more literate and
healthier. Their social services expanded along with a basically honest
government. Cuba became an integrated nation state with a sense of
purpose. But US policy directors understood: an external threat would
compel revolutionaries to organize their defense.
They grasped Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist #8: “Safety from
external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even
the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its
dictates.”
In Cuba, Batista had not permitted free speech or politics; so no
dramatic change took place. Unlike Batista, the revolutionaries had more
than personal power to defend. And they understood the possible
consequences.
US military forces killed up to 4 million Vietnamese (mostly
civilians) and lost 58 thousand US troops as Cuba’s revolution
developed. Few people today – or then – could explain the purpose of
that war.
While engaged in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, the CIA also backed a
string of military coups against democratically elected governments of
Brazil (1964), Chile (1973) and interfering in political processes of
other client states: invading the Dominican Republic and plotting in
Argentina and Uruguay.
Cuban doctors and teachers went abroad to aid others, Cuban artists —
painting and sculpture, poetry and literature, film, music and dance –
made world-wide names for themselves. The CIA in Africa assassinated
Congolese liberation leader Patrice Lumumba and backed merciless
dictators. Cuban troops helped maintain Angolan independence despite
serious threats from South African and CIA-backed troops invading from
the south and east.
In 1994, at his inauguration as South Africa’s President Nelson
Mandela acknowledged to Fidel Castro: “You made this possible.” He
referred to the role of Cuban troops in 1987-88 in helping the Angolan
army administer heavy losses to the South African forces who had invaded
southern Angola, forcing the apartheid regime to change its strategy
from military to political.
During the 1980s, Washington backed murderous regimes throughout the
world, like those in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala; same old
policy, but justified by Cold War rhetoric.
After the Soviets disappeared in 1991, the jubilation in Miami exile
circles and Washington office parties ran at fever pitch: would the
Cuban revolution collapse in a year – or less?
Now, 21 plus years later and still alive, Cuba’s revolution begins to
change its economic and administrative orders. The US media routinely
describes Cuba as poor, needy, miserable. But in 2012 on Cuba’s
non-violent streets there aren’t vast numbers of homeless like those in
US cities; and no hungry children (1 of 2 American kids experienced
hunger last year).
In “free and democratic” Mexico and Central America thousands of
gang-drug related murders occur annually. Cuba has no drug cartels or
children frightened of a drive-by bullet. As US wars killed tens of
thousands of Iraqi and Afghans and thousands of its own troops, Cuban
doctors repaired the sightless vision of thousands of third world people
around the world.
The US holds more political prisoners in Cuba — in Gitmo — than Cuba
does, and now has laws allowing the President to assas … oops, execute
US citizens he deems “terrorist” (without court procedures). US citizens
can get jailed indefinitely with no recourse to Constitutional
protections. But Washington blithely accuses Cuba of human rights
violations.
Cuba does face a broken economy, a bloated bureaucracy and other
serious problems – like no free press. Its leaders have begun a reform
process, and a broad dialogue has emerged amongst the population.
In Washington denial prevails. Presidential aspirants on both sides
ignore the trillions wasted on destructive wars, rotting infrastructure,
spread of poverty, and drop in the standard of living.
Cuba policy remains inflexible. Hard liners demand ever more time for
the policy to work! It’s only been 53 years since Washington’s elite
decided to force regime change in Havana.
No one asks: What did Cuba do to us again?
What Cuba is in serious danger of doing is demonstrating to the citizens of the United States that another model (rather than crony capitalism) works far better at maintaining the health of a nation's citizens, works far better at educating a nation's citizens, works far better at raising the boats for everyone sailing on the waters. CUBA proves that a socialist model, led by one who is not corrupted by materialist means can be quite successful, very much like the early Christian church!
Saul Landau, an Institute for Policy Studies fellow, produced Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up (Cinema Libre Studio). CounterPunch published his Bush and Botox World.Nelson P. Valdés is Professor Emeritus, U. of New Mexico and director of the Cuba-L Project.
