Cuba: Issues and Alternatives

Abstract

Episodes and experiences of such inclusive in volvement and extreme intensity as the crises arising from the Cuban revolution occur only when long-range and short- run considerations converge in and upon the same event. The long-range factors are defined by the fact and nature of Amer ican power in Cuba since 1895 and by the inability of Cuban society, operating within those limits, either to fulfill the American vision or to translate its own traditions into ongoing institutions and practices. The result was a social and colonial revolution initiated and led by indigenous radicals. Con fronted by this product of its own policies, the United States compounded the crisis by denying the right of the Cubans to carry through such a revolution within Western Hemisphere society. That forced the Cuban radicals to choose between abandoning their revolution or turning elsewhere for assistance. The only meaningful short-run alternative in the resulting im passe is for American leaders to initiate and carry through the first stages of an ideological revolution that will revitalize the tradition of responsible and imaginative upper-class leader ship that was established by the Founding Fathers.