Why did it take 50 years? Finally the US and Cuba will act like normal countries.

Florida’s a swing state in presidential elections. Even a small group, like the rabid anti-Castro contingent, can wield disproportionate influence in such an environment.

Yes, it was a combination of the Cold War initially and the fear that the Soviet Union had a foot on our doorstep in Communist Cuba. Recently, it has been held up by the anti-Castro Cubans in Florida who were forced to flee and hold political power.

I am delighted at the news.

Given the current difficulties with Russia, it occurs to me that there may be a larger strategic reason to have diplomatic relations with CUba – it’s another way of sticking a finger in Putin’s eye and showing how impotent Russia really is.

I remember when the US and Cuba became enemies in the late 1950s. I’m happy that I lived long enough to see this rapprochement.

It’s about time.

It made the USA look like fossilized dimwits in the eyes of the rest of the world. Obviously the embargo failed to topple the Castro regime for the last 50 years so it’s not like success was just around the corner :)

I don’t see a problem here but I don’t have a dog in this fight. Marco Rubio definitely seems pissed but he does have a dog in this fight. If it makes Castro stronger, it’s probably not a good thing. That seems to be the issue here. I’ll wait for the next ‘Bay of Pigs’ and see how that turns out.

Make Castro stronger? The man’s got one foot in the grave as it is.

It’s good news. It is best to be friends with your neighbours.

What is my take on todays announcement?
My take is don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
I won’t be buying any airline tickets to Cuba any time soon.

The Republicans don’t like it, because the Cubans in Florida might warm up to the Democrats. Although, I think the older Cubans never will.

I’m glad they are allowing flights again so people can see their family. They did it back in the 90’s for a short time. I don’t know why they stopped. People I knew saw Cuban relatives they had not seen in 20,30,40 years.

People say opening trade with Cuba will help the Cubans, but I always point out the Cubans do business now and allow flights between many countries and still the conditions there aren’t great.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

I wonder if they will eventually lose asylum privileges.

Blame Fidel Castro. He was willing to have the US and the USSR blow the world to smithereens just to make his point. I think we should wait until he’s dead before we make nice.

@knitiper Yeah, screw the people who suffer under him and who have families torn apart. The policies we have had haven’t caused Castro to go away.

“Finally the US and Cuba will act like normal countries.”

But for the fact that we have a presidential proclamation. Decree that would need legislation?

Some opinions from Cuban-Americans

@JLeslie Life is tough. Policies don’t mean much if nobody gets hurt. And that IS the point, isn’t it??

It is nice to see this policy relic of the Cold War disappear. It is amazing how wrongheaded the attitudes from that era were. We lost the Vietnamese war and, guess what, there was no domiono effect. We now recognize and trade with Vietnam. And nobody is going to be launching an invasion of the U.S. through Cuba. It just made us look like such jerks to be the only country in the world not to have relations with Cuba.

@LostInParadise I don’t know if we are jerks for not interacting with a regime that is repressive to its people. What makes us look ridiculous to me is we are so selective about it. We buy oil from Venezuela, he is another Castro, we have had relations with China for years and do a ton of business and imports. That’s what is so stupid to me.

Then the whole thing about not allowing flights for us wee people. I really hate that. Although, I remember when I was a young teen the Russian skating instructor told me how when she left Russia she could never go back. Never see her family again. The Russian government wouldn’t allow it. She was willing to accept that to come to America. Now of course things have changed in and with Russia.

@LostInParadise Time for your history lesson!
The US did not lose the war in Viet Nam: The South Vietnamese did after the US turned the fight over to them.
If the US wanted to win the war, we would have and could have if we weren’t fighting it to simply not lose.
Wars should be fought by generals, not micro-managing presidents in Washington, DC.
If a person or country has principals worth believing in and fighting for, then without those beliefs or fights the words of those principals mean nothing. The US would never be the powerhouse it is today if it didn’t back up it’s words with the blood of it’s fighting men and women.

Turning the war over to the South Vietnamese was equivalent to turning defense of the hen house over to the chickens. Nobody truly believed that the South Vietnamese were capable of winning. It took a very short time for them to be overrun by the North.

Here is a simple question. What would we have gained if we had won? Can you think of a more pointless war? I can’t.

@LostInParadise Iraq?

“We didn’t lose, we took our ball and went home.”

@LostInParadise A better “simple question” would be ‘If you’re not going to be in it to win it, should you get in it at all?’ And the answer to that question is ‘No.’

@janbb Some claim that oil was the real reason for the Iraq war. This may not be sufficient moral justification, but there was at least something of value to be gained.

@kritiper , If you don’t start a useless war then your question never arises. If you do find yourself in a war that can do you absolutely no good if you win it, the best course is to stop pointlessly sacrificing lives by getting out immediately.

@LostInParadise I think that is exactly what I said. Be sure, then be overwhelmingly decisive or stay home.

Just a few points you’ll may have missed. Korea was the same situation as Viet Nam. We could not invade the north without getting China involved and we didn’t want a war with China. Korea actually worked out pretty well. At least as well as could be expected. When Nixon bombed N.Viet Nam it hurt them enough to bring them to the table for a cease fire. The cease fire lasted for 2 years until congress cut off funding to S.Viet Nam and without funding they had no chance. And just for the record, we didn’t start the war in Viet Nam, it was already in progress when we got there.
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The China involvement was much like Cuba in that China did not want a western democracy on their border. Neither in Korea nor Viet Nam. That was the whole reason for dividing those countries. Likewise, we didn’t want a communist country on our border (or very close to it).

Indeed, we did not start the war in Vietnam. We got involved in someone else’s war, which is even more foolish.