Jimmy Carter's 2002 Cuba visit

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxx>]

JIMMY CARTER'S 2002 CUBA VISIT
by Walter Lippmann, Moderator

Last year at this time I had the good fortune to
be here in Cuba during former President Jimmy
Carter's visit to the island. I was able to see its
coverage in the Cuban media, and to attend
his lecture at the Aula Magna at the University
of Havana. Here are a few reflections back on
that visit in light of subsequent events.

The United States, as we well know, is a nation
where consciousness of history is not high on
the priority list. The noted philosopher Henry
Ford famously stated (and I'm fond of restating
frequently), his view that, "History is bunk".

The US State Department's Francis Fukuyama
described the present period, in the words of
his arrogant book title, "The End of History".

Cuba, by contrast, is a country where history is
always present, always active. Today there's all
but no recollection in the US media of the fact
that former President Jimmy Carter came to see
Cuba with his own eyes, and to interact with the
Cuban people just one year ago. I was fortunate
to be here at the time and want to share with you
some reflections on the Carter visit and the many
events which have taken US-Cuban relations far
further apart in the subsequent twelve months.

You'll recall that President Carter was the highest
level elected official (and formerly-elected official)
to have visited this island in the over four decades
since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Carter
had been invited by Cuba's President Fidel Castro
more than once, and had finally made the trip.

On the eve of Carter's visit, the Wall Street Journal
published a feature editorial, "Bush's Cuba Pickle"
in which it called bluntly for an end to the blockade
(which it referred to as the "embargo", however).
Today the WSJ is frothing at the mouth against the
island. The only thing which is left from that WSJ
editorial from last year is an op-ed by Republican
libertarian congressman Jeff Flake, under the title
"How to Hurt Castro"

While relations between Cuba and the US had
never been great during Carter's presidency we
saw some positive and significant steps taken at
the time. Interests Sections, functional equivalent
to embassies were established. Under Carter as
well a large number of Cuban prisoners were
released and went to the United States through
a secretive negotiation process in which exiled
businessman Bernardo Benes played a critical
role (fully directed by the Carter administration.)

It may also well be that during Carter's term in
office his efforts to improve ties with Cuba were
limited by the negative influence of his ultra-right
National Security Advisor, Zbigniev Brezinski, as
has been suggested by some students of the
Carter administration. Other, negative things also
occurred during Carter's term, but they're not really
decisive for today's purposes and reflections.

Carter came to Cuba and was greeted with all the
pomp and ceremony of a visiting head of state.
He spoke in a soft tone for a US president and
made numerous positive statements about Cuba's
many accomplishments in health, education, AIDS
and many other areas. During his one week here
on the island, he had more positive things to say
about the accomplishments of the Cuban people
under the revolution than all previous visitors by
all current or former elected officials COMBINED.

The Bush Administration, which politically opposed
the visit, but could find no legitimate way to prevent
a former US president from accepting the island's
invitation, did everything it could to divert attention
from and upstage the Carter visit. Let's recall:

First and foremost, a previously unknown official in
the State Department held a news conference not
long before Carter's departure to announce that the
administration "believed" that Cuba had the capacity
to produce biological weapons. (Today we might be
hearing the term "weapons of mass destruction" of
the kind which weren't found recently in Iraq since
the US invasion and occupation of that country.)

President Carter went to the State Department and
demanded proof of the claims, and none were forth-
coming. Carter went directly to the Cuban biotech
facilities and publicly rebuked Washington's claims,
from Cuban soil, and his rebuke remains posted to
the website of his website: www.cartercenter.org

The Cuban oppositionists, which we now know
were heavily funded by the US Interests Section,
also acted to try to take attention away from the
Carter visit by their own decision to stage their
turning in of the petitions for their Varela Project
on the eve of Carter's visit. The ever-compliant
US and international media supported this effort
as best it could. Carter met with the supporters
of the Varela Project, but discreetly. What a
difference between his and Cason's behavior!

The Cuban government kept its promise to give
Carter time to address the Cuban people via TV.

The next day the US media reported that fact but
complained that the transcript of Carter's talk was
not printed in the Cuban papers. But the following
day not only was Carter's talk reported and the
complete transcript presented, but the question
and answer session after Carter's talk was also
printed.

Carter (in case anyone forgets, he was actually
the popularly elected President of the US, an
accomplishment the current President cannot
claim), an unapologetic supporter of the system
of capitalism under which he was elected, spoke
to the Cuban people not as a conquering superior,
but in relatively restrained tones. When expressing
disagreements with his Cuban hosts he did so in
polite, diplomatic tones. Indeed, he said that it was
the responsibility of the United States, which had
run Cuba through client regimes for most of the
twentieth century, to take the first steps on the
road to normalized relations between the two
countries. A re-reading of his remarks at the
University of Havana make that very clear.

Cuban President Fidel Castro invited Carter to
the island, joined him at various stops along the
way, expressed gratitude to the former President
of the US for his numerous positive expressions
during the visit, and said nothing negative about
the comments he disagreed with or any actions
Carter took during the visit. Truly a class act,
Fidel Castro was, as Carter was as well.

The Cuban media gave effusive coverage to the
Carter visit. They continue to have posted a full
page on the Granma website with links to all of
the main articles (seventeen) describing Carter,
his wife and entourage and many of the places
and people with whom they interacted. While
some on the left whined and blasted the Carter
visit, such as the Spartacists, the Socialist
Workers Party and others, the Cuban media
had a completely positive assessment.

Of course it's quite appropriate to analyze, to
question and to challenge Carter's motives in
the trip, but as an activist in solidarity with the
Cuban Revolution, it makes most sense to see
Carter's visit as the great success for the island
which it was.

How did official Washington respond? I cannot
trace all the steps here, but suffice it to say the
Bush administration's response was given by
Bush himself, surrounded by his extreme right
camp followers and contributors at a May 20th
speech in Miami. No need to trace that here.

Bush also announced his pre-emptive war line
at a speech given at the US Military Academy
at West Point in June. (I think it would be more
clear to call it a policy of "pretaliation".)

In the fall we observed Washington's decision
to invade Afghanistan, supposedly looking for
the Al-Queda architects of September 11. We
then watched the US set up a client regime in
Kabul and now we've seen the installation of
another US client regime being started in Iraq,
though mass opposition to this is being daily
expressed by the Iraqi people.

Washington has also escalated its funding and
organizational efforts to build up opposition to
the Cuban government inside the island, and
this is all done quite openly as stated on the
websites of the State Department and the
National Endowment for Democracy.

And then, the US has encouraged hijackers
of Cuban airplanes by welcoming them to the
United States and retaining the hijacked craft
to be auctioned off for sale in the US.

The US has made a few gestures to suggest
less encouragement for these hijackers (on
one occasion, James Cason, the head of the
US Interests Section went to the airport in
Havana to publicly discourage a hijacking.
This only throws past welcomes of hijackers
into sharp relief - by contrast.

Looking back then over the course of the
year, we can see that relations between the
US and Cuba have continued to worsen as
the Bush administration, deeply indebted to,
indeed actively embedded with, Cuban exile
right-wingers, does everything it can to block
any moves toward normalization of relations
between the two countries.

In this context, Cuba's recent actions in its
self-defense, including the arrests, trials and
convictions of dozens of paid collaborators
with the United States makes sense. Trials
and summary judgments against armed
hijackers also makes sense as well, from
the viewpoint of Cuba's government.

You can fault the Cuban government for the
actions it has felt compelled to take. Many
people in Cuba have asked questions about
the executions of the hijackers, for example.

But if you don't make an truly diligent effort to
understand the facts on which the island's
leadership has acted they cannot be at all
understood.

The Cuban people have watched and
continue to watch the spectacle of both
Afghanistan and Iraq under the heavy hand
of US occupation. These are shown to
the Cuban people on the evening news
regularly. That is the image of the future
which the United States government would
impose on Cuba if it could get its way here.

Since the United States has followed one
policy, with small variations over 43 years:
blunt and absolute opposition to the Cuban
Revolution and a commitment to overthrow
the Cuban system, it might be hard for us
to imagine another in place, but it is and it
has to be. A better policy IS possible.

Is there a meaningful difference between
the carrot and the stick, between the Bush
and the Flake approaches? Well, not in the
goals and ends they propose, so there's no
reason to take sides and to endorse one or
the other. Cuba must solve its own problems
without interference from Washington, that
is the absolute bottom line in my opinion.

At the same time, from Cuba's point of
view, it would be far better were the US to
stop all its subversive efforts, end efforts to
overthrow the Cuban government, and finally
decide to accept Cuba's right to determine
for itself what kind of society it wants to have.

This would take a lot of courage by the US
government, but it's indispensible. If the US
can have have normal relations with China
and Vietnam, why not with Cuba?

Jimmy Carter's visit to Cuba showed what a
respectful dialogue could accomplish when
two sides approach one another in a spirit
of cooperation and communication. Would
that other US interactions with the island
were as simple and constructive as were
demonstrated during that one week.

YES: A BETTER WORLD, AND A BETTER
US-CUBA RELATIONSHIP, is  POSSIBLE.