Truthdig editor’s note: As President Obama begins his historic visit to Cuba, we are posting some of Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer’s past writings about the U.S.’ relations with and actions toward Cuba. This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times on July 14, 1998.
I seem to remember that Fidel appealed to the US - you know, that bastion of democracy and freedom - for help to overthrow the dictator Batista and mob rule in Cuba but was rejected - predictably.
I cannot find documentation for that though…actual memory or dream?.
The CIA and US Monroe Doctrine of hegemony and corporate domination (read United Fruit) in Latin America won the day. US coups deposing democratically-elected leaders, support for brutal dictators, arming and training death squads at the “School of the Americas”, and numerous military actions to repress national liberation movements was the policy.
I must give Obama some credit for opening Cuba, re-establishing relations, although his true motives are shrouded and suspect (as with the 6-nation Iran deal) given his other actions and policy decisions. The US embargo of Cuba remains, and the return of Guantanamo Bay to Cuba also…
I have observed the size and staffing of US Border Patrol facilities on the US/Canada border increasing twentyfold since Obama became president. I therefore sleep soundly knowing that single payer medical insurance will not invade us from the north.
Is Obama working on a trade deal to preclude Cuba from continuing its free medical assistance ?
Apropos to your comment regarding the US-Canadian border–very funny, in case you haven’t seen it yet.
The Mafia has been waiting for decades to get “their” water front property back in operation. Shortly we will be hearing from the Washington crowd demanding the return of such property before considering removal of “their” criminal sanctions.
What was it that Einstein said?
Something about repeating the same (failed) policies over and over again you descend into insanity?
(Something like that)
That’s been the US policy towards Cuba…
What a loss…
Here is Fidel Castro’s speech to the UN early on:
http://www.school-for-champions.com/speeches/castro_un_1960.htm#.VvBVsUdHOY0
Read it carefully in its entirety…it’s in three parts on this site.
all this just because cubans no longer wanted their women fucked by donleys for US tourists’s entertainment !
**Come on Common Dreams - don’t give us this recycled stuff about nickle dime violence. **
You’re supposed to be journalists, so start acting like you are. **
I have two words to get you started . .
** Operation Mongoose
Op Mongoose was terminated in January of '63 by Bobby Kennedy.
Three months later, he and his older brother were approached by a cuban intermediary named Harry Williams, who was acting on behalf of the cuban defense minister. Said minister had turned against Castro.
Thom Hartmann and Lamar Waldron have written two amazing, fantastically documented (primary sources) investigations of the Kennedy brothers’ actions between April 1963 and the assassination in Dallas seven months hence.
Way too much has been made of Mongoose and way, way too little is made of the brothers’ marching themselves right into a boxed canyon - also known as Dealey Plaza. It was all set. Castro was to have been taken out on December third while enroute to his seaside villa. Events in Dallas changed everything. JFK had always had an adventurous 007 streek in him and it proved to be his Achilles Heel.
