Blog Post Schoultz

Next week’s reading on Schoultz’s “Benevolent Domination: The Ideology of U.S Policy toward Cuba” discusses the stance of the United States on Cuba, the history between American-Cuban relations, the reasons as to why these relations were the way they were, the methods employed by the USA to instill democracy and their will amongst the Cubans, and the racism displayed by the American government towards the Cubans.

Throughout this article the constant theme has been the history of racism by the US govt. towards the Cuban people. Many of the politicians of the United States wanted Cuba to become a democratic country for economic and geopolitical reasons, but they believed that the citizens of Cuba were “like children” and could not be trusted in electing their own officials (as evidenced by the first election Cuba had, which had resulted in the USA invoking the Platt Amendment and placing a candidate of their choosing to run unopposed in the election). Government officials such as Teddy Roosevelt and LBJ often viewed the Cuban citizens as juveniles, and have often stated that the path the USA had selected for Cuba was the path to progress, and that it was because of their political immaturity that they would refuse to listen to the views forced upon them. However, a paradox exists because while the United States viewed very poorly of Cubans living in Cuba, they prioritized Cuban-Americans living in Florida due to the fact that Florida is a key state in Presidential elections. As a result of this, and the socioeconomic status of many Cuban-Americans with political power, the presidential candidates have often held very strict “conservative” views on Cuba, often refusing to lift the embargo, or tighten immigration standards, and often calling for Cuba to become “free”.

As time passed the USA took many precautions to change the Cuban government, such as the Bay of Pigs or Operation Mongoose, but as the USA began to focus on more domestic issues, the shift focused to “nut-pinching” sanctions and embargoes. These strategies can be seen today as well with countries such as Iran and North Korea, and is a strategy that was often employed by imperialist countries to weaken the economic standing of opposing countries. While this article does articulate the racism displayed by U.S government officials towards those of Hispanic descent, this racism often affected almost every other race that was affected by imperialism, as can be seen through articles declaring those who were not Christians to be “savages” and they were often treated as animals. While many imperialist nations held this ideology, they could act on it because during their time period rampant racism amongst imperialists was common, but as time passed into the World Wars and Cold War era, the United States attempted to establish themselves as a country that fought for “moral and just” causes such as democracy (while they maintained their internal racism), they could not risk the invasion of another country solely due to their belief in the inferiority of the Cubans, and so a less obviously racist approach was taken (in sanctions and embargoes). Schoultz does raise some valuable points about the involvement of the American armed forces in suppression of Cuban revolts, this argument can be taken a step further by observing the United States involvement in numerous coups throughout Latin America. He could have also reinforced his idea of the USA denying democracy to Cuba by bringing up evidence from Chile and Iran, as it would have demonstrated that it was not the only time that America would place their interests over their values.