Why does the US have a military base in Guantanamo, Cuba and how did it come to be established there?
My wife and I were watching Jeopardy! and one of the questions was which country has had a US base since 1903 and the answer was Cuba. That got me to thinking and brought up the question above.
Anyone have the straight dope on this?
Another good link on the history:
The US leased the land at Guantanamo when we and Cuba were on friendly terms. After Castro took over, he refused to recognize the lease, but was smart enough not to try to evict a large number of Marines. Since then he’s cut off the water and power, and the base is now self-sufficient. The Cuban government also refuses to cash the rent checks, which the US still dutifuly sends.
But he might want to update that 1994 column; “Gitmo was in the news a few years back” no longer seems current.
A better question might be, “Why does the U.S. still have a Guantanamo military base?” I woud think its strategic value ended with the Cold War.
But that would take us into GD territory.
. . . Mods? 
I would think that the answer to that was obvious: because it’s a thorn in Castro’s butt (literally). Other than that, I dunno. It’s not like it has any real strategic value anymore, what with the advances in technology that have been made since it was a coaling station.
Surely the answer is that it is a convenient place to detain and torture people. 
IIRC, one of the original attractions of the base was that it was a good place from which to base operations if you wanted to control access to the Gulf of Mexico. With the advances in such things as ship endurance, replenishment and maintinance underway, and aviation, this base might be less important for that, but IANAA(dmiral).
Pjen. Remember what forum you’re in. Political sniping belongs elsewhere.
samclem GQ moderator
This is the explanation for pretty much everything the US does regarding Cuba. When Fidel finally croaks, I fully expect that within a few years, the Pentagon will announce plans to close the Guantanamo Bay base.
I know this is GQ and not GD but, in an attempt to better answer the OPs question I felt I should reply to this.
The Guantanamo military base has been there since 1903. The United States government did not start detaining people there under the “War on Terror” until the last three years or so. So from roughly 1903-2001ish that purpose wouldn’t make any sense as it was not used for that.
Whatever the reason for the continued existence of the base it is doubtful that something that’s only arisen in the last few years explains the continued existence of a base that’s been there for over one hundred.
[nitpick]
Well come on, it’s not literally a spiky bit of a plant implanted in the dictator’s ass…
[/nitpick]
Does anyone know what the word “Guantanamo” means, if anything? (Someone shouts it in the middle of a Cuban song, and I don’t have enough Spanish to be able to tell if it’s a reference to the base or if there’s some other meaning.)