China and Cuba are on opposite sides of the Earth, yet they have one striking characteristic very much in common: Both have longstanding, autocratic, communist governments. However, where the United States and China are titanic trading partners on all levels of business and government, Cuba has remained almost completely off limits to American trade since 1962.
Why, exactly, is this Cuban embargo still necessary? First, let's review a bit of history. In 1959, Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba, and declared it a communist nation in 1961, friendly to the USSR and hostile to the West. Free enterprise was shuttered. That same year, the United States attempted a military insurrection against the Castro government, culminating in the embarrassing failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the routing of anti-Castro forces. The USSR followed up by placing nuclear missile sites in Cuba, leading the world to the edge of a nuclear war between America and the USSR. The fall of the USSR in 1991 was a blow to Cuba, but it has remained resilient and still functioning.
Supposedly, the explanation for the American embargo against Cuba is this: By inflicting economic isolation and suffering, the Communist Cuban government will be weakened, and then the Cuban populace will overthrow it, demanding a democratic government in its place. Unfortunately, there have been examples from around the world, showing that embargoes and economic isolation do nothing to improve the state of a nation, or to push it towards a more free and open government:
- After World War I, the victorious Allied powers inflicted staggeringly brutal economic and financial penalties against Germany, with the notion that these would dissuade Germany from further aggression. Exactly the opposite occurred: Germany, resenting the suffering inflicted upon them, descended into political extremism and further totalitarianism, culminating in the rise of Nazi Germany and the Third Reich, whose mark on history is known to all.
- After the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, America cut off virtually all diplomatic and economic ties, again reasoning that this would push the Iranians back towards moderation and freedom. 28 years later, we must still deal with a hard-line Islamic government in Iran, interested in militancy and nuclear weapons. Obviously, the American solution did not work.
- After the 1991 war against Saddam Hussein, in response to his invasion of Kuwait, ended with Hussein still in power, economic sanctions and trade embargoes were applied to 'contain' Hussein and to attempt to force him from power through popular revolt against his rule. These had no effect other than to cause hardship and hatred of America, and eventually the United States went to war with Iraq again, in its successful 2003 invasion and subsequent, disastrous occupation of that country.
As we can see, all of these examples of economic pressure ended in further strife, violence, and suffering, without the appearance of democratic reform. However, there is one, final example, the most damning of all, and that is Communist China. China is one of America's greatest trading partners, providing everything from billions of dollars of credit to the US government, to cheap plastic goods for purchase by rednecks at the local Wal-Mart. A loss of trade with China would result in catastrophic damage to the American economy, as well as severe problems for the American government, as China owns so much American debt. Yet, China is the world's largest and most populous one-party, Communist state, operating on a very similar governmental structure to Cuba.
Where is the embargo on China? Where are the American attempts to force democratic reform through economic isolation? There is no embargo. Some Americans, fortunately, have learned an important lesson: Freedom and democracy spreads not through violence and embargo, but through free enterprise, travel, and exchange between nations. Signs of reform are already beginning to appear in China, due in no small part to the fact that the United States trades and travels freely to and from China. In time, China could shed its Communist ways entirely, but not at the barrel of a gun, nor at the infliction of political and economic isolation.
The question I pose, then, is this: Why do we still need an embargo against Cuba? Virtually no other country in the world, including our neighbors Mexico and Canada, has such restrictions. Nothing has changed in Cuba. Castro and his supporters still rule unchecked, and conditions caused by economic suffering still result in Cubans attempting to flee Cuba, at risk to life and limb. This embargo has gone on for 45 straight years now. Isn't it time for America to step back, admit a mistake, and attempt a better solution? Change in Cuba will come when trade, travel, and ideas can be freely exchanged, through commerce, tourism, and export and import of goods.
Economic isolation and sanction does not and has not worked. There is a better way, one that requires admittance of a mistake and adoption of a new, non-belligerent economic strategy that can result in the freedom of the nation of Cuba, and vast economic opportunity for both the United States and Cuba. Let's end this Cold War remnant of an embargo, and get back to business.
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