From Kennedy to Obama, 50 years of secret US-Cuba talks

Tourists pose next to a sign with the images of Cuban and US Presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama in Cuba, on March 19, 2016. PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Beyond the public animosity, stark statements and a trade embargo, there is another side to US-Cuba relations: exploratory missions, discreet negotiations and hands extended - in hotel hallways, airport waiting rooms and even the Vatican.

Barack Obama, who arrives in Havana on Sunday (March 20) for the first visit by a sitting US president in nearly 90 years, will be the one remembered for opening a new chapter in ties between the United States and Cuba.

But he is not the first to have tried. For more than half a century, other US presidents have taken a stab at it, with the same buzzword always in mind: discretion.

While only about 160km separate the two countries, the idea of rapprochement has been a politically loaded one in America since Fidel Castro and his band of bearded revolutionaries came to power in 1959.

Thanks to a number of third countries (Mexico, Spain, Brazil and Canada) and a host of intermediaries (aides, businessmen, journalists and writers, for starters), attempts at bridging the divide, many of them ambitious, have marked the history of bilateral relations.


JOHN F. KENNEDY

Former US president John F. Kennedy. PHOTO: HANDOUT

"Kennedy saw an opportunity to try to win Cuba back from the Soviet orbit," explains William LeoGrande, a professor at American University and co-author of the book Back Channel To Cuba: The Hidden History Of Negotiations Between Washington And Havana. Kennedy chose a French journalist, Jean Daniel, to convey a message to Castro in 1963.

Daniel, tasked with being the ultimate diplomatic courier, met the Cuban revolutionary leader. He and Kennedy "seemed ready to make peace," he said later.

But on the very day that Daniel met Castro, Nov 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The project fell apart. Kennedy's successor Lyndon Johnson did not wish to pursue the initiative.


GERALD FORD

From left: Former US president Gerald Ford and then secretary of state Henry Kissinger. PHOTO: UPI

But the intervention of Cuban forces in Angola in 1975 on behalf of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - which now rules the African nation - sounded the death knell on the effort.


JIMMY CARTER

Former US president Jimmy Carter. PHOTO: REUTERS

In the early weeks, things seemed to be moving along - agreements were reached on maritime disputes, commercial fishing and on opening diplomatic interests sections in each country.

"I always had a high opinion of Carter as a man of honour, an ethical man," Castro said years later. "Carter was a man who wanted to fix the problems between the United States and Cuba."

But again, the effort wavered over Cuba's military actions in Africa. Havana refused to budge, and Carter said the time was not right to move forward.


GEORGE W. BUSH

Former US President George W. Bush. PHOTO: AFP

BARACK OBAMA

US President Barack Obama. PHOTO: EPA

Pope Francis personally wrote to both leaders - Obama and Fidel Castro's brother Raul, now the president - to urge them to move forward.

In October, US and Cuban delegations found themselves at the Vatican, with officials from the Holy See, to finalise the terms of their normalisation of ties.

On Dec 17, 2014, Obama and Castro stunned the world with their announcement that Washington and Havana would resume formal ties.

The nearly unthinkable had happened: top-secret talks had gone on for 18 months without a single leak to the media.

Why so much secrecy? For LeoGrande, there are still powerful reasons to tread carefully on the subject of Cuba - though not the same ones as a generation ago.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, it was more the issue of the Cold War and (American) presidents did not want to risk looking soft on communism," he told AFP.

"That's why Johnson decided not to follow up on Kennedy's initiative."

But from the 1980s, the influence - and political clout - of the Cuban exile community in Florida started to weigh heavily on the minds of US political leaders.

"Presidents were afraid - particularly Democratic presidents and Democratic candidates - that if they hinted at an opening to Cuba, they could lose the state of Florida and lose the election," LeoGrande said.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.