Will Cuba’s “opening” be Obama’s legacy?

Will Cuba's "opening" be Obama's legacy?
Morris Beschloss, Special to The Desert Sun 5:03 a.m. PDT June 15, 2016

As the controversial Obama Administration faces its waning months, the
U.S. President's prime achievement may be the speed and intensity with
which the current reawakening of U.S./Cuban relations have progressed.

This is particularly remarkable since any open relationship with
Havana's self-styled Castroite Communist government had been considered
political poison by both major U.S. political parties. With an
ever-increasingly influential Cuban/American population segment making
itself felt as a strong political factor, even an incidental contact
with brothers Fidel and Raul Castro has been "off-limits;" since the
expulsion in 1959 of the corrupt dictatorship of President Fulgencio
Batista, and the major U.S. corporations that enjoyed the favors of
Havana's previous rulers.

The abrupt takeover of these U.S. corporate holdings by the Castro
regime was only worsened by the failed U.S.-led "Bay of Pigs" government
overthrow, hatched during the Eisenhower Administration, but carried out
in the early months of the succeeding Kennedy term. This boiling
antipathy came to a head when Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev
succeeded in planting a nuclear bomb delivery system in Cuba in
mid-1962. A nuclear confrontation was barely averted later that year
when cooler heads prevailed. The Soviet Union pulled out its threatening
nuclear warheads, while the U.S. removed its aging Jupiter missile
system from Turkey, with an added promise not to invade Cuba.

The following 50 years witnessed the desperate flight of thousands of
Cubans to Florida, while no diplomatic or economic contact existed
between the U.S. and Havana, separated only by a 90 mile stretch of the
Caribbean Sea.

In light of what seemed to be a permanent cleavage in the U.S.-Cuban
relationship, the near total diplomatic and potential economic
relationship (dependent on Congressional approval) could be ushering in
a long-awaited rapport. This previously appeared to be impossible while
the Castros held an iron-clad dictatorship, in addition to an alliance
with the Soviet Union.

Ironically, what now appears to be an unexpected breakthrough, with a
state visit and recognition by President Obama, seems to have instigated
practically no opposition from the contending American political parties.

This puts the successor President in the privileged position of having
their predecessor breaking the ice, but getting the trade benefits with
a potentially thriving, developed, 12 million strong nation. It's
desperately awaiting the commercial, industrial, and retail benefits
that this increasingly literate and modernized population has been
hoping for.

To be sure, the unresolved usurpation of properties and business
interests by the Castros will have to be resolved, as well as human
rights and a more flexible political approach to justify American
investments. Perhaps the Obama Administration may justifiably feel that
opening Cuba, by benefitting America's economy, is an antidote to the
give-away agreement reached with an increasingly hostile Iran.

Source: Will Cuba's "opening" be Obama's legacy? -
http://www.desertsun.com/story/money/industries/morrisbeschlosseconomics/2016/06/15/cubas-opening-obamas-legacy/85870514/