No thaw for you! Remembering when Henry Kissinger contemplated air strikes against Cuba

From our Bureau of Responses by Angry Statesmen to Duplicity of Latrine American Communist Tyrants with some assistance from our Bureau of Early Versions of Obamapalooza

Much has been said about Henry Kissinger’s statesmanship in the past few days, following his recent death at age 100. Kissinger is remembered for so many significant diplomatic initiatives that a full list could fill dozens of pages.

But one aspect of his diplomatic approach to relations between the U.S. and communist nations has received relatively little attention. Of course, this ignored bit of history pertains to Cuba, and to Kissinger’s warming of relations with Castro, Inc. at the tail end of the Nixon Administration and the beginning of the Ford Administration, following the start of detente with China and the Soviet Union.

Director of the Center for a Free Cuba John Suarez has posted a very illuminating Cuba Brief on Fidel Castro’s response to Henry Kissinger’s easing of the U.S. embargo in 1975.

Quoting Nestor Carbonell’s account in his 2020 book Why Cuba Matters: New Threats in America’s Backyard, this Cuba Brief describes what happened when Henry Kissinger tried a softer approach to Fidel Castro.

Below is an excerpt. Read the full Brief HERE.

“Eager to clinch a deal with Castro, the Ford administration offered several inducements to the Cuban ruler without any quid pro quo. First, the United States voted in favor of the July 29, 1975, OAS resolution, effectively ending the multilateral diplomatic and economic sanctions against the Castro regime. Then on August 19, President Ford eased the US embargo, allowing foreign subsidiaries of US companies to trade with Cuba, dropping foreign aid penalties on countries trading with the island, and permitting ships en route to Cuba to refuel in the United States.”

The hoped for “easing of tensions” did not occur, but instead the Ford Administration ended up with egg on its face.

Castro’s response was to send thousands of Cuban troops to Africa, first to Angola. According to the [Department of State Bulletin Volume 89 – February 1989] On September 23, 1975 “Secretary of State Henry Kissinger declared that events in Angola had taken a ‘distressing turn’ and that the United States was ‘most alarmed at the interference of extracontinental powers,’ i.e., the Soviet Union and Cuba.” [ Cubans had been there since at least March 1975]

All pretense that Cuba only had an advisory role was dropped on November 5, 1975, [Department of State Bulletin Volume 89 – February 1989] when thousands of Cuban troops were fighting in Angola; by February 1976, the number had increased to an estimated 14,000.” Cuban involvement in Angola would continue until 1991.

Kissinger was so angered by the Cuban intervention in Angola, and the failure of detente that he entertained the idea of air strikes on Cuba.

This pattern of opening up to the Castro regime with unilateral concessions, legitimizing it internationally, providing it more resources, followed by negative consequences was established by Henry Kissinger during the Nixon and Ford Administrations and would be repeated on greater scale by the Carter, Clinton and Obama Administrations over the next four decades.