September 2005 Issue
Close, but no Cigar: Dealing with Castro
Veronica DeZayas '08It is apparent that the “Red Scare” fomented by Senator McCarthy is long over, and thankfully so. The regimes that once had us cowering in our makeshift bomb shelters are now threats of the past; the Soviet Union has collapsed, we now trade with China, and it would appear that the rapid spread of Communism has halted almost entirely. The new ideological phantasm is Islamic fundamentalism and its terrorist tactics, and although Communist countries such as North Korea and China continue to be viable threats to Democratic nations, recent administrations have been content (if not enthusiastic, in Nixon’s case) to suffer amicable—or at least diplomatic—relations with them. So why are dealings with Cuba, our tiny island neighbor, so drastically different?