A "community" divided: Cuban-American attempts to influence Jimmy Carter's Cuba policy, January 1977-May 1978.

• Author: Loiacano, Catherine
• Position: Essay

A graduate student historian looks at Cuban-Americans and how they influenced foreign policy vis-a-vis their homeland during the Carter Administration. Even today, U. S. policy toward the Castro regime is intimately tied to Cuban-American attitudes--Ed.

At the beginning of your War of Independence in 1775, Benjamin Franklin wrote to his old friend in England, William Straham: "Look upon your hands! They are stained with the blood of your relations!" Mr. President, I submit that your decision in this matter might well determine if you will ever again be able to look at yours. (1) note1

-Juanita Castro, Cuban exile and younger sister of Fidel Castro (2) note2

When Jimmy Carter entered the White House in January 1977, United States policy on Cuba revolved around three key issues: Africa, Puerto Rico and human rights. (3) Upon assuming the presidency, Carter began immediate actions to communicate with the Cuban government. He hoped to influence Fidel Castro to withdraw his troops from Africa, cease his meddling in the Puerto Rican independence movement, and release Cuba's political prisoners. The Cuban exile community consistently attempted to influence Carter's Cuba policy. However, by analyzing Carter's initial steps toward normalization, the various demands of the exiles, and the shift in Carter's policy from 1977 to 1978, it is clear that the role of the exiles was relatively insignificant. President Carter ultimately followed Cold War policy and shifting domestic demands that called for a harder line towards the Soviets; this led him to abandon normalization with Cuba.

Juanita Castro represented one segment of the spectrum of Cuban exiles that attempted to influence the Carter administration's policy toward Cuba. Some exiles, like Juanita Castro, rejected the idea of normalization with a nation that ignored basic human rights. Other exiles that opposed normalization engaged in terrorism to protest Cuba's human rights abuses and Carter's normalization efforts. Cuban-Americans moderates like Miami banker Bernardo Benes (4) supported normalization as a means to improve human rights conditions on the island and promote family reunification and prisoner release programs.

Carter Policy 1977

A New York Times article commented on the growing political presence of the Cuban Americans. "More and more Cuban refugees are opting for United States citizenship as the dream of a free Cuba fades," it noted in April 1977. "Seventy-five thousand have already been naturalized. Twenty to thirty others take the oath each day." The majority of Cubans became Democrats in the aftermath of Watergate. (5) Throughout the campaign, Carter worked to bring these voters to his side, carefully avoiding the topic of normalization. (6) According to historian Gaddis Smith, "there were no votes to be won, and many to be lost, by indicating friendliness toward Castro" in the campaigns. Indeed, this was a wise choice. Though many issues divided the Cuban exiles, any glimpse of leniency toward the Cuban leader would surely have lost Carter much support from within the exile community.

As a result of immigration and naturalization, Hispanic Americans became "a significant political force in a rapidly growing Florida" throughout the 1970's. (7) In July 1972, Bay of Pigs veteran Manolo Reboso became the first Cuban exile appointed to the Miami City Commission. In November 1973, Reboso became Miami's vice-mayor, and Puerto Rican Maurice A. Ferre became the first Hispanic mayor elected in Miami. (8) During the 1976 campaign, Jimmy Carter appointed a Cuban exile, Miami's Bernardo Benes, as Florida Director of Hispanic Affairs. (9) Also at this time, Miami exile Alfredo Duran was Florida's Democratic State Chairman. (10) (Benes and Duran would later prove instrumental in negotiating the release of three thousand Cuban political prisoners.) During his first year in office Carter named Cuban-American Mauricio Solaun a United States Ambassador to Nicaragua. (11)

Winning over the exiles was an important step for the Democratic president. In the 1976 elections, Carter won Dade County (the county with the nation's largest Cuban-American population (12)) with 58 percent of the votes. However, in the Dade precinct with the largest Cuban population, 62 percent of the votes went to the GOP incumbent, Gerald Ford. (13) As Lars Schoultz highlights, from early in his presidency, Carter's team debated "how to use U.S. policy toward Cuba to bolster the administration's standing among Florida's Cuban American community." (14) This would prove difficult, however, as Carter could not hope to satisfy the demands of one spectrum of the exile community without alienating another.

In response to Juanita Castro's letter to President Carter in May 1977, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski explained Carter's policy as outlined in an April 14 speech to the Organization of American States:

We believe the normal conduct of international affairs, and particularly the negotiation of differences, require communications with all countries in the world. To those ends we are seeking to determine whether relations with Cuba can be improved on a measured and reciprocal basis. (15) This response reflected the early platform of Carter's foreign policy. Jimmy Carter promised a new foreign policy based on human rights and a global community rather than an obsession with possible Soviet communist expansion. (16) This would prove one of Carter's greatest difficulties throughout his presidency, as he shifted from the moderate position promoted by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to the hard-line policies of Brzezinski. (17) A former champion of Operation Mongoose under President Kennedy, (18) Cyrus Vance favored a more diplomatic approach to the Castro government by the late 1970's, telling President Carter in an October 1976 memo, "our boycott has proved ineffective." (19) Brzezinski's point of view did not undergo such a transformation. Schoultz explains, "Brzezinski brought an exceptionally narrow Cold War perspective to nearly every policy dispute, and in the case of Cuba this approach invariably meant interpreting moves by the Castro government as evidence of Soviet intentions." (20) Indeed, the Vance-Brzezinski divide concerning Cuba bears striking similarities to the moderate-opposition divide in the exile community.

Carter immediately began moving towards improved relations with Cuba. On 24 March 1977, his administration began its first series of secret talks with the Cuban government. (21) That same month, Carter lifted the 16-year ban on travel to Cuba. (22) From April 25-27, the U. S. and Cuban governments engaged in the second round of secret talks, negotiating the fishing and maritime boundaries agreements (signed 27 April 1977) and discussing the possibility of opening interest sections in Washington and Havana (which would occur 1 September 1977). (23) In his first nine months in office, Jimmy Carter made more significant steps toward normalization with Cuba than any president since the breaking of diplomatic relations in 1961.

Exile Demands

The Cuban exiles that left the island as a direct result of the Cuban revolution expressed strong opinions about President Carter's efforts to normalize relations with the government of Cuba. Referring to the exiles, Florida Congressman Lou Frey wrote Carter in July 1977 saying, "They feel they are the best testament of what Castro has done to their country and can best comment on the situation there." (24) And comment they did.

By the late 1970's, several divisions existed among the approximately 750,000 (25) Cubans living in the United States, based in part on their different socioeconomic backgrounds. Upper-class Cubans who had supported Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba for...