Into Cuba

The embargo must go

THE subject of Cuba and U.S. policy toward that troubled and ill-governed island has surfaced again in the highest quarters of our land. The island was discovered by Columbus on October 27, 1492. Four hundred and ten years later it became a republic. On May 20, 1902, one Tomás Estrada Palma assumed the presidency of the fledgling nation. He was hand-picked by Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood, serving the administration of President McKinley. Cuba’s race and class divisions reflected four centuries of Spanish colonial rule and an economic dependence on slavery, up until the 1870s. In the 19th century, disparate elements of Cuban society—planters, peasants, and slaves— coalesced to oppose Spanish rule. In a succession of bloody conflicts and cruel reprisals, the toll in lives was staggering.

JS

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James W. Symington

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The embargo must go

THE subject of Cuba and U.S. policy toward that troubled and ill-governed island has surfaced again in the highest quarters of our land. The island was discovered by Columbus on October 27, 1492. Four hundred and ten years later it became a republic. On May 20, 1902, one Tomás Estrada Palma assumed the presidency of the fledgling nation. He was hand-picked by Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood, serving the administration of President McKinley. Cuba’s race and class divisions reflected four centuries of Spanish colonial rule and an economic dependence on slavery, up until the 1870s. In the 19th century, disparate elements of Cuban society—planters, peasants, and slaves— coalesced to oppose Spanish rule. In a succession of bloody conflicts and cruel reprisals, the toll in lives was staggering.