# Guantanamo Bay:  How Can This Be?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guantanamo-bay-how-can-this-be/137194>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 17, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guantanamo-bay-how-can-this-be/137194 "2002-11-17T19:40:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JohnW77707](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@JohnW77707](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnW77707)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guantanamo-bay-how-can-this-be/137194/1 "2002-11-17T19:40:59Z")

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Was watching A Few Good Men last night, and got to thinking – how could the US possibly have a base on what is essentially an enemy country?

I know I could look it up myself but I’m hoping that the SD can come through with a quick-and-dirty answer for LazyJohn.  
JohnW77706

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guantanamo-bay-how-can-this-be/137194/2 "2002-11-17T19:56:40Z")

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It was a base **before** Castro took over, under Batista. The Cuban army wasn’t ever strong enough to attempt to retake it and we certainly saw no reason to abandon it.

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**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guantanamo-bay-how-can-this-be/137194/3 "2002-11-17T20:15:47Z")

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This question was just asked last week ([in this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143912). Just a quick archive search brought that up.

Guantanamo (aka Gitmo) was around long before Batista. Short version: the U.S. signed an indefinite lease on the base after liberating Cuba from Spain at the start of the 20th century, the nominal payments for which Castro refuses to cash.

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**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guantanamo-bay-how-can-this-be/137194/4 "2002-11-18T00:38:04Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Hail Ants \*  
> \*\*It was a base **before** Castro took over, under Batista. The Cuban army wasn’t ever strong enough to attempt to retake it and we certainly saw no reason to abandon it. \*\*

Retaking Gitmo would likely be a prelude to a very short war. While we did pledge not to invade cuba, I would think that we’d have just cause for disregarding it if Cuba struck first. And Castro isn’t nearly that stupid…

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**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guantanamo-bay-how-can-this-be/137194/5 "2002-11-18T03:02:23Z")

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Since this was covered so recently, I’ll close this thread and direct folks to the other one.