Obama Should Visit Cuba Like Nixon Visited China
We’re only a few days away from the inauguration of President Barack Obama and again Cuba is in the news.
Obama has signaled that he may close Guantanamo Bay on his first day in office as he works to reverse Bush’s long standing policy on detainees.
An article by William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh at the Los Angeles Times has written an op-ed piece declaring that Obama should go to Cuba similar to the way Nixon visited China in 1972.
U.S. policy toward Cuba today, like policy toward China in 1972, is overdue for change. Relations broke down 50 years ago because Washington was unwilling to countenance a Latin American client state escaping the orbit of U.S. hegemony, and because Fidel Castro was determined to do just that.
In 1972 Nixon faced much of the same old school thinking that prevails today. Let’s hope Obama makes a bold move to normalize relations with Cuba and ends the Cuban embargo soon.