Authors see chance for breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba relations

Authors see chance for breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba relations
By Daniel Trotta

HAVANA (Reuters) - The authors of a new book detailing 55 years of
informal communications between the United States and Cuba see a rare
opportunity to normalize relations, provided President Barack Obama
wants to seize the moment.

William LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh co-wrote "Back Channel to Cuba,"
which was officially released on Monday and explains the informal and
secretive "back channel" means that Havana and Washington have used to
speak to each other despite their hostilities.

Based largely on declassified documents, the book created a stir with
its revelation that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
ordered contingency plans for a military strike in order to "smash
Castro" in response to former President Fidel Castro sending Cuban
troops to Angola in 1975.

The authors are in Havana for a dual presentation of their work and a
similar book by Cuban authors Elier Ramirez and Esteban Morales, also
released on Monday, that is based on previously unreleased Cuban documents.

LeoGrande is a professor of government at American University and
Kornbluh is director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the
non-governmental National Security Archive.

They say Obama will have the stage to lift bilateral relations out of
the shadows next April in Panama at the Summit of the Americas. As host
country, Panama has verbally invited Cuba, which would participate for
the first time.

Obama might meet Cuban President Raul Castro there in what could
potentially be more substantive than their handshake during a brief
encounter at Nelson Mandela's funeral last December.

"In the coming months this is the opportunity for diplomacy, culminating
in the opportunity for Obama to fulfill a campaign promise he made in
2008," Kornbluh said, referring to Obama's stated willingness to meet
with leaders of U.S. adversaries such as Iran and Cuba.

LeoGrande said a number of conditions are uncommonly favorable. Obama is
in his second term and final term. The presumed Democratic front-runner
for the 2016 nomination, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has
already advocated a change in Cuba policy, so he would not damage her
politically.

Most importantly, he said, polls show a majority of Cuban-Americans in
South Florida now favor a change.

"I am reasonably optimistic," LeoGrande said. "Obama's been saying ever
since he was a candidate that the policy doesn't make sense and needs to
change. And Raul Castro has been saying he wants to see a policy change.
... A lot of things that have prevented change in the United States are
old issues."

A New York Times editorial on Sunday added to the voices urging Obama to
alter a Cold War-era policy and move toward restoring diplomatic ties
and ending the comprehensive trade embargo imposed on Cuba.
Conservatives oppose change, criticizing Cuba's continued one-party
political system and repression of dissidents.

Cuba, meanwhile, has little expectation of U.S. change.

"The philosophy of punishing Cuba remains in effect," Josefina Vidal,
chief of the Cuban foreign ministry's U.S. division, told reporters in
Havana last week.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Richard Chang)

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