The Relations Between The United States And Cuba - 1487 Words

The turbulent relations between the United States and Cuba became more controversial since the Cold War. They reached their apex on 15th October 1962, when after realizing that the Soviet Union was developing missile bases in Cuba, President Kennedy started taking strong procedures against Cuba. Indeed in February 1962 he signed the Embargo, which has not yet been lifted but reached improvements after more than 50 years, in April 2015 during Barack Obama and Raul Castro presidency (Renwick and Lee, August 4, 2015). This report will look at the difficult relations between U.S and Cuba, giving an outline of the historical background, along with the explanation of the processes that guided the decision to normalise these relations. Moreover†¦show more content†¦Even though the United States had objections on Castro’s Communist philosophy, they accepted his regime (Suddath, April 15th, 2009). Nonetheless Castro’s government intensified commerce with the Soviet Union, nationalized U.S properties, and hiked up taxes on American importations; the United States answered by rising economic retaliation (Renwick and Lee, August 4, 2015). Another fundamental event on the relations between Cuba and The U.S was on January 3rd 1961 when The United States closed its embassy in Havana coming to an end with diplomatic ties with Cuba (Hudson, August 3rd, 2015). The worst period in their relations occurred when in October 1962, President Kennedy imposed the embargo on Cuba (Hudson, August 3rd, 2015). The slow process of normalising U.S and Cuban ties began secretly in 2013, but it became official only in December 2014, after 50 years of no diplomatic relations between the two countries. On December U.S President Barack Obama and Cuba’s President Raul Castro declared that they had exchanged prisoners to start the re-establishment of their diplomatic relations. This normalization of relations is a process that will continue for a long time, due to Cuba’s Human Rights matters and Havana’s request to maintain restraints on Cuba’s society and economy (Daily Mail, July 1st, 2015). On July 2015, President Obama released a statement on the