What would Richard Nixon do on Cuba? He would end the embargo.

Watch the video here.

Writing just before his death in 1994, Nixon called on the U.S. to end the failed policy of regime change. Nixon, the arch-Cold Warrior, knew that with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the withdrawal of its troops from Angola, Cuba posed no threat to the United States. It is time, Nixon said nearly 15 years ago, for the United States to support the Cuban people.

What was true then is even plainer today. The New America Foundation's U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative and the Nixon Center hosted leading Nixon, Cuba, and national security practitioners on July 28, 2008 for a game-changing conversation about U.S. policy toward the 11 million people 90 miles off our southern shores. Moderated by Steve Clemons, the speakers included, Dimitri K. Simes of the Nixon Center, Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director on the National Security Council and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.), former chief of staff at the State Department.

Click here to listen to Dimitri K. Simes, president of the Nixon Center, talking about Nixon's views on Cuba.

Of course, Nixon had another problem with Cuba policy. He recognized that with the end of the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy would lose its strategic coherence and fall victim to petty domestic politics.

He was right. U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War is calculated less on the basis of the national interest and increasingly on the basis of the domestic political power of single-interest groups. Cuba is not alone in this regard. As Simes, Leverett, and Wilkerson all remarked, the U.S. is reeling from equally ill-advised policies in the Middle East.

Cuba remains the premiere symbol of this dysfunction. A small group of highly motivated exiles have hijacked U.S. policy not only toward their homeland, but in the process have compromised our standing in the world, and our relations with all the countries in Latin America.

When the next President swears to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States on January 20, 2009, the world will be watching. Will the United States once again conceive and conduct our foreign policy based on the domestic political power of single-interest groups or will we base our national security decision making on the firm foundation of the national interest? Will Congress let him?

Cuba policy can be a signal of change or a symbol of dysfunction. It is time to choose.

Click here for the video of the entire event.

Patrick Doherty
Director, U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative
Blogging at: The Havana Note
Deputy Director, American Strategy Program
New America Foundation

For more details on the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative, please contact Patrick Doherty at doherty@newamerica.net, 202-986-2700.

Learn More About: Patrick C. Doherty
Related Programs: American Strategy Program, U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative
Topics: Foreign Policy, Trade & Globalization