Front Burner America’s long standoff with Cuba
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Mar 25, 2026 Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive and Cuba expert, guides a lively tour of U.S.–Cuba relations. He traces 19th-century ambitions, the Platt Amendment and Guantanamo, Batista and Castro’s rise, the Bay of Pigs and missile standoff, Cuba’s global role, and the swing from Obama’s rapprochement to recent hardline rhetoric.
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Why The U.S. Saw Cuba As A Strategic Prize
- U.S. imperial interest in Cuba predates the Cold War and was driven by economic, strategic, and slave-state politics.
- 19th-century U.S. leaders saw Cuba as a prized sugar-producing island and a strategic mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, prompting offers to buy it and the Platt Amendment control provisions.
How 12 Survivors Toppled Batista
- Fidel Castro's revolution began with a failed 1953 Moncada attack and a near-disastrous Granma landing that left only 12 survivors.
- Those 12, including Fidel, Raul, and Che Guevara, went to the mountains and led a three-year guerrilla campaign that toppled Batista by January 1959.
Castro Wasn't Initially Seen As A Communist
- Fidel was not initially a declared Marxist and attracted sympathy inside parts of the U.S. establishment.
- CIA officers and Nixon saw Castro's leadership qualities, and early back-channel meetings even tried to enlist him against communists before the Bay of Pigs changed trajectories.
