On October 19th 1960 the embargo on Cuba was implemented. That's 50 years of failure, including:
Eisenhower
Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Nixon
Gerald Ford
Carter
Reagan
Bush I
Clinton
Bush II
Obama
Eisenhower
Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Nixon
Gerald Ford
Carter
Reagan
Bush I
Clinton
Bush II
Obama
The US effort to topple the regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba reached a new crescendo when the Eisenhower administration on October 19 imposed an embargo on the island nation. Excepted from the embargo were only some medicines and certain foods. Export of wheat, corn, rice and soybeans was banned.
The move aimed to cripple the small island nation, which had long been economically dependent upon its trade with the US—as much as 75 percent of all imports to Cuba in 1958 came from the US. The embargo had been preceded by sharply deteriorating relations between the US and Castro since his guerrillas had seized power from the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
Despite anti-imperialist rhetoric, Castro had first sought a modus vivendi with the US, but Washington, fearful that the Cuban example might be followed elsewhere in Latin America, moved to isolate and then remove Castro. In response, Castro took successive measures to expand the scope of nationalizations, turned to the Soviet Union for support, and increasingly referred to the Cuban revolution as socialist. Havana responded to the embargo by accelerating the nationalization of US-owned property.
The question of Cuba was beginning to predominate in the 1960 US presidential elections, and the announcement of the embargo appeared designed to aid the Republican nominee, US Vice President Richard Nixon. John Kennedy, the Democratic nominee, countered with a call that “fighters for freedom” in and out of Cuba be given aid for “overthrowing Castro.”
The move aimed to cripple the small island nation, which had long been economically dependent upon its trade with the US—as much as 75 percent of all imports to Cuba in 1958 came from the US. The embargo had been preceded by sharply deteriorating relations between the US and Castro since his guerrillas had seized power from the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
Despite anti-imperialist rhetoric, Castro had first sought a modus vivendi with the US, but Washington, fearful that the Cuban example might be followed elsewhere in Latin America, moved to isolate and then remove Castro. In response, Castro took successive measures to expand the scope of nationalizations, turned to the Soviet Union for support, and increasingly referred to the Cuban revolution as socialist. Havana responded to the embargo by accelerating the nationalization of US-owned property.
The question of Cuba was beginning to predominate in the 1960 US presidential elections, and the announcement of the embargo appeared designed to aid the Republican nominee, US Vice President Richard Nixon. John Kennedy, the Democratic nominee, countered with a call that “fighters for freedom” in and out of Cuba be given aid for “overthrowing Castro.”
