The Right Time

In the history of the complicated and antagonistic relations between the United States and Cuba, there has perhaps never been a better moment than now to seize the opportunity to resolve differences that have separated both countries for more than half a century.

The Cold War is a thing of the past. These days, Cuba isn’t considered a “threat to the security of the United States,” apart from a few outdated right-wing Cuban and North American fanatic extremists who insist on saying so — who search for pretexts, for lack of real arguments, to maintain the separation between these two nations that were fated to be neighbors even before both either was a free and independent country.

The conditions are ripe for both Washington and Havana to sit down and discuss their differences and to leave behind the confrontational rhetoric in order to clear the path to a relaxed climate. This would be mutually beneficial for both countries, despite having different systems of government. This should not be an obstacle to having normal diplomatic relations like with other civilized countries in the world.

If we are going to recount the history of diplomatic relations between the United States and countries in the 20th century who adopted the “communist” form of government, we would begin by saying that in 1933 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt arrived at the White House, the first decision he made in the international arena was to establish formal diplomatic relations with the young Soviet Socialist Republic whose leader was none other than Comrade Joseph Stalin. On that occasion, the United States put no conditions on the communist government for establishing diplomatic relations. Ideological discrepancies existed regarding systems of government, but this presented no obstacle to respectful diplomatic relations that gave rise to the military alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union at the breakout of the World War II against the Axis powers: Berlin, Rome and Tokyo.

The Allied victory against German, Italy and Japan ushered in the Cold War, a confrontation between Washington and Moscow for world hegemony. But not even that led to a break off of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The story is well-known. The world was on more than one occasion at the precipice of a third world war. And in one of these confrontations, Cuba was in the eye of the storm. After the great October Crisis there was calm, and then other wars arose to disrupt world peace. Luckily, Cuba played no role in those.

As far as the nations go that declare themselves “socialists” — China and Vietnam among them — since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the United States maintains normal diplomatic relations with them; but not so with Cuba. Why? You’ll have to ask Washington. Because Havana, with all due respect, keeps asking, why not?

To start down the path that leads to a solution, the Obama Administration should take a first step by freeing the “Cuban Five,” journalists accused of being Cuban Intelligence agents who infiltrated the United States. And from the Cuban side, one should hope for change and an answer, the freeing of the North American agent, Alan P. Gross and the other Cubans serving sentences for having served the political interests of Washington in Cuba.

This is the opportune moment. The sooner the better. Let good sense prevail.