The news put into perspective every Saturday, thanks to the historian Fabrice d’Almeida.
The news has fallen: China will open a spy base in Cuba. Something to awaken the old Western suspicion of the Castro regime. Because since his accession to power in 1959, Fidel Castro and his successors have never ceased to give headaches to American leaders. With in particular a crisis, about the installation of a foreign base on the island: the missile crisis.
It was October 1962. President Kennedy learned from aerial photographs from a CIA U2 spy plane that Soviet missile bases were being set up. He set up a blockade of Cuba and made contact with his counterpart in the Kremlin, Nikita Khrushchev, to prevent the deployment of these nuclear weapons. Eventually the Soviets gave up and the missiles were withdrawn. In exchange, in a secret agreement, the Americans undertook not to invade the island.
Cuba remained a thorn in the American side, because for the Russians it was as dangerous and close as Pakistan or Turkey for them. And the men of Washington remained persuaded that attacks always came from the Castroites. The latest example is this strange illness that affected several members of the American Embassy in Cuba in 2017. The staff complained of being attacked by ultrasound, which triggered headaches, “acoustic harassment” . A diplomatic crisis ensued.
New cold war
That China takes a place similar to that of the USSR in Cuba, by installing a spy base there, is highly symbolic. This shows the new cold war that is beginning between the two giants of the Pacific. And this also indicates Beijing’s desire to make people understand how unpleasant it is to have an island not far from its coast where an adversary is established: Cuba is the mirror image of Taiwan. However, Xi Jinping did not hide his desire to accomplish an invasion and a reunification of the nationalist archipelago with Mainland China.
Today Cuba is having fun making a mess of its powerful neighbor by relying on a new ally. But this comparison game could backfire. In history, the initiatives of some generate a reaction from others.