(my bolding) A blockade and an embargo are not the same thing. The USA does not trade with Cuba, but it does not restrict any other country from trading with Cuba, nor does it stop ships from entering or leaving Cuba.
I was Stationed there Dec 83-Dec 86. The movie was only about 10% right and most of that, was it happened in Cuba. I could have been a dangerous place but it wasn’t. Sometimes the Cuban Frontier Brigade would patrol close to the fence to get a reaction from us.I remember one time Fidel had some high level Russians and they flew them to his bunker over looking the base and the we all kinds Hind and Hip Choppers in the sky and the Cubans brought in more troops to protect The Great One and his Russian guests in case the 400 Marines and 4 Tanks wanted to invade and take over Cuba .It was a good place to have family very little crime no drugs. The whole time there I never locked my doors in housing or my truck most of the time I never took out the keys.
As an aside from the OP, thanks to those posters who are sharing direct knowledge and experience here - very interesting! I never took a look at GB on a map until today and did not appreciate the base’s location at the mouth of the bay with the backside of the bay opening to Cuba. Also, I always thought it was at the eastern tip of the island. Ignorance reduced.
Welcome to the community, Willie686!
thank you I will be looking forward to this sight. I explored the base as I was in communications and was the light anti-tank section with my wiremen all we had is LAWS and an m-60. Glad the cubans never attacked lol
The Col was not transferred he was relived of command By Gen Gray who at the time was CG FMF Atlantic. I drove the fast boat from the air field and was in the COC when he relived, which in the next room to the Col. office. Gen Gray was not a nice man when he was pissed off and he was pissed off. Then he called the Marines not on duty (Staff NCO and Officers) and raised hell to us about letting the Col do what he did. The next Day the Col and the Sgt Maj were flown off the island.
A blockade and an embargo are not the same thing. The USA does not trade with Cuba, but it does not restrict any other country from trading with Cuba, nor does it stop ships from entering or leaving Cuba.
yes and no. The USA did not blockade Cuba, but at the time made it very difficult for other countries to do business there. Canada was especially impacted because many Canadian companies were American subsidiaries so could not do business there, even if the products were completely Canadian-made. And there was one Canadian mining company whose executives were barred from the USA because they had a contract to work a mine the Cuban government confiscated from its original owners. the Americans had occasional episodes of zeal in enforcing the letter of the embargo.
It is entirely possible it would have been just as safe as peacetime. Cuba was not part of the Warsaw Pact and not obliged to go to war if the USSR did. They were allies, but Cuba had its own foreign policy and security needs.
Cuba is not the big bully in the relationship; the USA is. Cuba was, and still is, terrified of the United States. Why would they have started a local war? The logical thing for them to do if things suddenly got hot in Europe would have been to immediately let the USA know they intended to sit the war out.
Exactly. Cuba knows (knew) that any outright war would simply mean the Americans would roll over them; especially if it was related to a conflagration in Europe against the Warsaw Pact it’s unlikely the Russians could project enough force to defend Cuba. But then, in a European conflict, America would probably be happy not to have to deal with a Cuban distraction at the same time. Which still doesn’t solve the problem - if American and the world were still standing after a shoot-out in Europe, what are the odds the Russians would be able to help Cuba afterwards? MAD stability…
Even in the world of the movie itself, Guantanamo Bay wasn’t anywhere near as dangerous as Jessup was trying to depict in his interviews with the Jag team and in his testimony. The whole point of the movie was that Jessup was fabricating for others and even for himself world in which his backwater installation was the last defense against civilization and catasrophe to use as an excuse for his ultra-macho posturing and murderously abusive bullshit shenanigans.
Just a point about a “blockade.” The US didn’t even blockade Guantanamo Bay. Cuban boats were able to go right through the middle of the base out to sea and then back in towards Guantanamo City.