Imagine this: You’re sitting back, smoking a nice, fat, Cuban cigar next to a roaring fire, in an old, oak rocking chair in a flannel bathrobe, in your grandfather’s cabin up in the Appalachian Mountains. Wait, no. You can’t. Because smoking Cuban cigars is illegal. In 1961, the Unites States severed all ties with the country. That was just wrong, and overall, a poor decision. The US should not have severed all ties with Cuba in 1961. With the increased violence, all the illegal Cuban immigrants in our country, and the trade embargo that followed the cutting of the ties, the US should definitely not have cut relations with Cuba.

Our first contention is that the severance of ties with Cuba caused a lot of violence for the United States, Cuba, the USSR, and many other countries. After Eisenhower cut Cuba off in 1961, later that same year, in April, John F. Kennedy ordered the “Bay of Pigs Invasion”. In the invasion, 1,400 American-trained Cuban refugees invaded and attacked Cuba by ship and plane. However, the invasion went terribly wrong, due to the fact that Cuban intelligence knew of the plan, and defended itself accordingly. In the end, the US suffered a humiliating loss with 120 dead, and over 1,200 men taken prisoner (Sheehan 27). Another violent act that occurred in part because of the severance of ties with Cuba was the Cuban Missile Crisis. After we cut all relations with Cuba, Fidel Castro, Cuba’s then-leader, turned to their fellow-communist ally, the USSR, who was our enemy at the time. The USSR placed nuclear missiles in as many as 32 different places in Cuba, targeted at the US (John F. Kennedy). “On October 24, 1962 President John F. Kennedy warned his country of the threat from a nuclear attack and demanded that the Soviet Union dismantle the sites. He made it clear that not dismantling the missile sites would be viewed as a hostile act justifying nuclear retaliation by the United States” (Sheehan 28). Thankfully, after a “fourteen-day standoff”(Renwick Lee), the USSR did back out, and the potential violence of nuclear war subsided. Grudges and cold-looks were held though by both sides long after, even today.

Our second contention is that along with cutting ties with Cuba, we put a trade embargo on them, and that made both of us suffer. A trade embargo is when neither party can trade one with another. Cuba was the United States’ main source of sugar and cigars, so we suffer from that even today. That is why it’s illegal to smoke/buy/posses Cuban cigars. Without the embargo, “sugar in particular would get cheaper in the US”(Knapp). We’re not the only ones who suffer. Cubans suffer far worse. Cuba is said to be “stuck in the 1960’s”(“Cuban Embargo Pros and Cons”). Since Cuba can’t trade with the US, and they’re not a very wealthy country, all of their cars are from the 1950’s and 60’s, giving it a ‘retro’ feel to various tourists. Not American tourists of course (Mann). Doctors in Cuba have access to less than half of the drugs and treatments for serious diseases like cancer or HIV than the rest of the world currently. They also suffer from food shortages causing serious caloric intake drops. The lifespan of the general population is even shortening! “Why are these things not available in Cuba? Because they were commercialized through the US patenting service”(“Cuban Embargo Pros and Cons”). Yes, Cuba is communist and can be seen as a threat to the US, but come one, we trade 24/7 with China, and they’re communist.

Our third contention is that the severance of ties with Cuba caused many Cuban refugees to flow into America… Illegally. Back in 1980, Castro made it legal for all Cubans wanting to leave to the US could do so. That set off a huge wave of illegal immigrants here in the US. “But the Cuban government also took the opportunity to ship off a fair percentage of its own prison population”(Sheehan 29). This still occurs today. Cubans cross over straight into Southern Florida, or sometimes they even use Haiti, or the Dominican Republic to enter Puerto Rico, then going to the US. They use “yachts, speedboats… [but] mainly aboard rickety boats” (DominicanToday Staff). The United States has made it legal for all Cuban immigrants to become US Citizens after a certain period of time living here for practically nothing, whereas citizens of other countries looking for US citizenship go through long waits, trials, tests, and tribulation.

Do you feel safe knowing some of Cuba’s worst criminals got off scotch free and are living in America? Do you think it’s fair to the Cuban population to suffer medically due to the trade embargo set in 1961? Do you enjoy the violence that occurred in the Cold War, and the racial stereotypes and hard feelings between the US and Cuba? Obviously, back in 1961, we must have been doing some crazy drugs, because we should definitely not severed all ties with Cuba. Slowly, we are changing that today, and hopefully it is eliminated in the near future.

Works Cited:

"Cuban Embargo Pros and Cons." Asia-Pacific Economics Blog. N.p., 28 Jan. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

"The Cuban Missile Crisis." HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. N.p., 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

"Cuban Missile Crisis." - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. Presidential Library and Museum, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

"The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962." Office of the Historian. US Department of State, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

DominicanToday Staff. "Cubans Using Haitian, Dominican Soil to Reach Puerto Rico Concerns the U.S." DominicanToday.com. N.p., 8 Aug. 2006. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.

History.com Staff. "Bay of Pigs Invasion." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.

Knapp, Tomas L. "Who Benefits From the US Trade Embargo of Cuba?"Center for a Stateless Society ». N.p., 2 Nov. 2009. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

Mann, Jenna. “Cuba Is Trapped in the Past: Some Facts about the Caribbean Communist Nation.” The Sheaf. University of Saskatchewan, 2 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.

Redwick, Danielle, and Brianna Lee. "U.S.-Cuba Relations." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.

Sheehan, Sean. CUBA. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1995. 26-28. Print.