Word: cuba
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After the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was quite clear that a Soviet base in Cuba would spell disaster for American security. The United States's hard-line policy grew even harder, faithfully perpetuated by a succession of presidents, both Democrats and Republicans. Through Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, through the Vietnam War, Woodstock, disco, and Reaganomics, Castro still ruled in Havana, a perennial thorn in the side of the United States despite the crushing weight of the trade embargo...
Thus evaporated the primary reason for the economic war against Cuba. The United States continues to enforce it, partly out of habit and partly our of a stubborn sense of national pride. But these are hardly justifications for major elements of U.S. policy. As a result, the government now claims it maintains the embargo in order to coerce Castro to hold free elections and develop a free market economy...
...have almost always taken precedence over even the most egregious violations of human liberty. Castro is a bad man, but he is hardly the worst, and he would not have received such strong treatment from the U.S. if there had been no threat of a Soviet military presence in Cuba...
Even more importantly, the embargo is simply not effective. It has been maintained for over 30 years, but Castro is more firmly rooted than ever, and the poor have borne the brunt of the economic strangulation of Cuba...
Immediately after the recent flood of refugees began, Clinton prohibited Cubans in the U.S. from sending cash to their families in Cuba, in order to punish Castro. The big losers in this action were, of course, the impoverished citizens of Cuba, and Castro will only feel the effects marginally...