The United States and Cuba have suffered through an extremely long and difficult relationship over the past 55 years. The conflict arose due to many political and economic differences between the two countries, as well as the actions taken by Fidel Castro. The difficulties ultimately resulted in the United States placing an embargo on Cuba around 1960. Fortunately, these broken ties may be on the path to reconciliation, as President Obama and leader of Cuba, Raul Castro, are working to heal their diplomatic relations. The switch in power from Fidel Castro to Raul may have been the ultimate turning point for both countries. The current status of the relations between the United States and Cuba is still a work in-process, but the recent major
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The actions of Fidel Castro are what led the United States to putting an embargo on Cuba. Castro immediately lost American support by enacting laws that were consistent with the philosophy of Communism, even though at the time, Fidel had not officially announced he was a communist. For example, one of Fidel’s first laws was the First Agrarian Reform Law, which “limited the size of land holdings and forbade foreign property ownership”(Raul). Fidel Castro also “imposed heavy taxes on imports from the U.S. In the first year of Castro’s regime, U.S. trade with Cuba decreased 20%” (Fabry). These events indicated to the United States that Fidel Castro was going to turn Cuba into a communist country. At the time, with the Cold War going on, communism was generally viewed as evil by the United States and its citizens. This caused President Eisenhower to place trade restrictions on most products by not food and medicine. Castro responded by trading more with the Soviet Union, which was exactly not what the United States wanted. The United States then completely dissolved relations with Cuba and President Kennedy put into place a complete trade embargo (Fabry). The embargo negatively affected both countries. It hurt Cuba more than it did the United States, but the impact on the U.S. want not small. After the embargo was put into effect, the United States’ Chamber of Commerce noted that, “it [would] cost the United States $1.2 billion annually in lost sales of exports” (Cuba Embargo). Although the economy was able to support itself, American farmers could feel the loss in demand for certain products. This was the worst that the embargo had in store for the United States, but the outcome would be tragically worse for Cuba. The embargo did not only hurt the Cuban economy, it caused the people of Cuba to suffer as well. Cubans
The actions of Fidel Castro are what led the United States to putting an embargo on Cuba. Castro immediately lost American support by enacting laws that were consistent with the philosophy of Communism, even though at the time, Fidel had not officially announced he was a communist. For example, one of Fidel’s first laws was the First Agrarian Reform Law, which “limited the size of land holdings and forbade foreign property ownership”(Raul). Fidel Castro also “imposed heavy taxes on imports from the U.S. In the first year of Castro’s regime, U.S. trade with Cuba decreased 20%” (Fabry). These events indicated to the United States that Fidel Castro was going to turn Cuba into a communist country. At the time, with the Cold War going on, communism was generally viewed as evil by the United States and its citizens. This caused President Eisenhower to place trade restrictions on most products by not food and medicine. Castro responded by trading more with the Soviet Union, which was exactly not what the United States wanted. The United States then completely dissolved relations with Cuba and President Kennedy put into place a complete trade embargo (Fabry). The embargo negatively affected both countries. It hurt Cuba more than it did the United States, but the impact on the U.S. want not small. After the embargo was put into effect, the United States’ Chamber of Commerce noted that, “it [would] cost the United States $1.2 billion annually in lost sales of exports” (Cuba Embargo). Although the economy was able to support itself, American farmers could feel the loss in demand for certain products. This was the worst that the embargo had in store for the United States, but the outcome would be tragically worse for Cuba. The embargo did not only hurt the Cuban economy, it caused the people of Cuba to suffer as well. Cubans