Monday’s event brought together Dimitri Simes of the Nixon Center, Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson -- former chief of staff to General Colonel Powell -- and New America’s Flynt Leverett and Steve Clemons to discuss the future of Cuba policy. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right.

Dimitri Simes started the event lightly, speaking to Nixon’s love of Cuban cigars -- which he would enjoy quietly in the residence offered his closest guests, Simes recounted -- but quickly moved to heavier issues, offering that “Nixon was very angry with the way the United States was allowing key foreign policy decisions to be made by single interest groups. He thought it was very unfortunate that the U.S. only had a stick, and could not offer any kind of carrot.” Simes also addressed a recent statement made in Moscow, issued by a former Air Force Chief of Staff, regarding the stationing of strategic bombers in Cuba. The move, he conjectured, was a feeler, aimed garnering a political response from both Cuba and local power hubs, and suggested the move -- even if unlikely to advance -- should remind the U.S. of the remaining importance of Cuba in geo-strategic terms.

Julia Sweig suggested two steps the next administration might take to advance relations with Havana: first, legalize thirteen categories of licensed travel between the two states, thus allowing “American citizens under the rubric of churches, educational institutions, and civil society organizations to travel to Cuba.” Such a change, she suggests, would provide an “opportunity to get to know one another again, Cubans and American, to get into one another’s rolodexes. To know what makes the each other tick.” Second, she suggested the next administration make it clear to the new Congress that it will not veto any legislation that peals back the embargo. Helms Burton, she explained, left power to move against the embargo squarely in the hands of congress. Though difficult to repeal the legislation in its entirety, she thinks the measures, if disaggregated, might move faster than expected now that “the Cuban American community is no longer a single voting block” in her view.

She also stressed the critical role Naval Base Guantanamo Bay has played as a symbol to Latin America, and the broader world, of failed U.S. policy. She advocated not only closing the detention center, but also the repatriation of the base to Cuban sovereignty as a possible important and symbolic step along the path to reconciliation.

Flynt Leverett cast his remarks in strategic terms. He spoke to the rise of a new wave of the political left in Latin America, led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and suggested the best way to undermine such an advance lie in engagement with Havana
Leverett perhaps captured the hue of discussion best offering: “This is a topic that is not just important in terms of us interest in Latin America, the issue of Cuba policy raises one of the most fundamental questions we need to address about foreign policy… should American foreign policy be set on the basis of American national interests….or will foreign policy be set on the basis of something else. That something else is most likely to be the agenda of some domestic interest group or constituency.”

Leverett also spoke to the issue of Cuba’s recently discovered Hydro Carbon reserves, suggesting that every major energy corporation headquartered outside the U.S. has engaged with Cuban government in regard to the reserves. Leverett surmised, “If you take energy security seriously, this posture simply makes no sense.”

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson offered two problems with the history of U.S. Cuban relations. First, he stated, we must not have a “moron” in the White House, and second, Cuba policy must be made an issue worthy of attention. Cuba, he argued, has simply been too low of a foreign policy priority for President’s in recent years. He suggested that the U.S. take a much more serious look at foreign policy in the western hemisphere at large, starting with Cuba, an arena in which gains will resonate loudly. “We need a substantiate foreign policy for the western hemisphere, and the way to do that is with a full rapprochement with Cuba.” Wilkerson also stated that Cuba, in both the war on terror and anti-narcotics efforts, has played a more helpful role than any other nation in Latin America. An assistance we, without surprise, have failed reciprocate.

-Brian Till, Research Associate for the American Strategy Program

This event was co-hosted by the New America Foundation and The Nixon Center.