[coldcode]

The whole Cuban blockade is utterly pointless anyway and deserves to die. After all Germany killed 100,000+ Americans - now our friends. Japan also - now our buddies. China (via Korea) also mostly friends. Vietnam killed 52,000 - now favorite trading country. Etc. Etc. Cuba - no one from the US killed (other than stupid Bay Of Pigs) - not a friend. Why, other than a tiny loud minority of people in S. Florida? If we just opened Cuba and sent them Disney and GM, we'd change their government in a heartbeat. Dollars change everyone's government.

[rdl]

I agree that the Cuban blockade doesn't help and would ideally be ended; the problem is that Cuban-Americans are a powerful voting bloc and highly concentrated in a single swing state. Plus the policy has been around for a long time. The ideal would be to have some kind of fig leaf event in Cuba (change in leadership didn't seem to do it?) which everyone can use as a face-saving excuse to end the sanctions and normalize relations. Cuba remaining Communist in the way Vietnam is communist would be a great outcome for everyone. Cuba transitioning to some form of socialist-capitalist hybrid would be even better.

Arguably the fall of the USSR would have been an ideal time to end this, even with Cuba remaining communist. Certainly a healthy Castro stepping down would have been a major favor in the 1989-1992 period toward this. I wonder if there was any effort at the time.