Uri Friedman yawns at Obama shaking Raúl Castro’s hand at Mandela’s memorial service:
Raul Castro greeted Obama’s election in 2008 with enthusiasm, noting that the newly elected president seemed “like a good man” and that Cuba was open to talks with the U.S. about “everything” (Castro’s daughter even endorsed Obama during the 2012 election—to the delight of Mitt Romney supporters). Raul’s brother Fidel was initially a supporter as well but has since grown disillusioned, asserting that a “robot” would do a better job running the United States. Obama, for his part, has lifted some restrictions on travel to and financial transactions with Cuba, but the embargo remains firmly in place and the two countries still don’t have diplomatic relations.
In other words, the exchange of a handshake and pleasantries at a memorial service is unlikely to move the needle on U.S.-Cuban relations. But if the White House doesn’t go through Clinton administration-like contortions to explain the encounter, it might be fair to conclude that shaking hands with the Cuban president just isn’t as big a deal as it used to be.
Larison agrees:
It’s worth remembering that there are any number of petty dictators and kings around the world that receive much more from the U.S. than a presidential handshake, and if one wants to direct irate criticism at U.S. coziness with authoritarian rulers it would be a lot more productive to start there. As for the handshake itself, it is an almost completely empty gesture that would have gone unnoticed but for the fact that the U.S. perpetuates an outdated and pointless embargo of Cuba. The only reason that it is remotely newsworthy that two heads of state greeted one another at another leader’s memorial is that our Cuba policy is such a useless Cold War relic.
Yglesias joins the chorus:
American policy toward Cuba is like a textbook example of something that doesn’t work. It succeeds in making Cuba a bit poorer than it would otherwise be, and in marginally inconveniencing American citizens but it is pretty clearly not an effective tool for ending Communism. Indeed, Communism ended—more than 20 years ago!—in Eastern Europe without the Soviet Union and its European satellites being subjected to this kind of comprehensive trade embargo. In parallel, Communist regimes in China and Vietnam have altered their domestic economic policies of their own volition since it turns out that orthodox Marxist-Leninist economic management doesn’t work very well.
People should be able to visit Cuba as tourists if they want to. Via direct flights from Miami and Newark and wherever else. And people should be able to go to a store and buy a Cuban cigar or some Cuban rum or whatever. If the Cuban government wants to prevent that, they should be the ones putting travel restrictions in place. They’re the Communist dictatorship, after all. We’re supposed to be the free country. Everyone knows this policy doesn’t work, but nobody wants to admit it.
But Eli Lake suspects that little will change:
“There has been a string of emissaries, both private citizens and Latin American leaders, who have begun to nudge Obama forward on engaging in talks with Cuba and also carrying a message from Castro that he’s willing to talk,” said Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation who has exceptionally close ties to the Obama White House and accompanied Vice President Biden on his recent tour of East Asia.
But despite these private signals and messages, the relationship may not be ready for a thaw. Indeed, on Tuesday, as Obama and Castro shook hands in South Africa, authorities detained about 20 dissidents in Havana who gathered to demonstrate on International Human Rights Day. While human rights have not appeared to be a factor in the U.S. outreach to Iran in recent weeks, they remain at the center of U.S. policy goals for Cuba. The 1996 legislation that codified the U.S. embargo of the island, known as Helms-Burton, explicitly says the embargo shall not be lifted until Cuba releases political prisoners and holds free and fair elections.
Chait is embarrassed at McCain’s comparison of Obama with Neville Chamberlain:
[H]ere is John McCain, respected foreign-policy voice and recipient of 60 million votes for president, rambling bizarrely that he would not have shaken Castro’s hand because “Neville Chamberlain shook hands with Hitler.”
Well, okay, yes he did. And yes, Castro and Hitler are both dictators. Here are a few differences:
1. Cuba poses just a wee bit less of a military threat to its neighbors than Nazi Germany did in 1938.
2. The problem with Chamberlain’s negotiating strategy was not that he shook Hitler’s hand.
3. Castro is not promising that, in return for a handshake, he will refrain from invading our allies.
(Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro during the official memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela on December 10, 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa. By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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