Why Does the U.S. Still Have a Military Base in Communist Cuba?

[Jim_B]

More recently in the news, detainees from Afghanistan are said to be held on a U.S. military base in Guantanomo Bay Cuba.

Why does he U.S. still have any military base in Cuba? Weren’t they all disbanded after Castro came to power in 1959? This isn’t a great debate, I am just curious what the story is behind it.

[Nametag]

Are you kidding? Why would the U.S. give up a base on the only hostile ground in the hemisphere? (after all, it’s not like Cuba could throw us off or anything; we have a lease and we’re bigger 'n them).

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

Still the point in the OP is well taken. IIRC millions of dollars worth of American-owned property was expropriated without any compensation to the owners, so why should the military base have been any different? Moreover it was very much a different world in the midst of the cold war, yet I have never heard of a direct confrontation over Guantanamo at any time.

[Jophiel]

An excerpt from http://www.havana-holdings.com/news/cuba_news011102-1.htm

Q: What are U.S. forces doing on Cuban territory?
A: U.S. Marines set up base at Guantanamo on June 6, 1898, at the outset of the Spanish-American War.
In 1903, the newly established Cuban Republic acceded to U.S. demands to lease Guantanamo - it had little choice, considering it had won independence from Spain largely through U.S. might. The rent was and remains 2,000 gold coins a year, now valued at $4,085. In its act establishing the lease, Congress cited two goals: protecting Cubans from Spain, and providing defense for the United States.
Throughout the subsequent decades, U.S. forces stationed at the base helped prop up regimes threatened by uprisings, and the base served as a refuge for leaders in flight more than once. Such actions increased U.S. leverage, and in 1934, the lease was renegotiated to allow the land to revert to Cuban control only if abandoned or by mutual consent.

Q: Does Cuba abide by the lease?
A: It has little choice. Castro says the base is an affront to Cuban sovereignty - he refuses to cash the United States’ annually delivered check. In the 1970s, he used its existence to justify the large Soviet troop presence on his island - but the law and balance of power are on the side of the United States. The Cuban foreign ministry acknowledges that Cuba has no jurisdiction over the base. There are regular two-hour flights between Jacksonville, Fla., and Guantanamo, but no regular travel between Guantanamo and Castro’s Cuba.

Q: What purpose does it serve the United States to maintain a base in Cuba?
A: Plenty, besides being the most convenient position from which to spy on one of its last Cold War foes. Guantanamo’s natural harbor is a perfect refueling-retooling stop for U.S. ships patrolling the Caribbean. Its presence deterred Nazi submarines from Caribbean waters during World War II, and it was a natural stop for the region’s refugees in the 1980s and 1990s. It’s also been a base for anti-drug smuggling operations since the 1980s.

[dolphinboy]

Because we can…

[kanicbird]

Also an interesting note - Castro cut the power, water and sewerage (I think sewerage but it would seem they would just use a septic system). It took awhile for the base to build infrastructure but is now self suficent

[HPL]

We (speaking as an American) have an unlimited lease (much to Castro’s Chagrin) and we don’t feel like ending it anytime soon. The cubans are hardly in a position to do more then protest and send eviction notices which we then tear up.

The cubans could try to force the US out, but somehow I don’t think that would come out well for Cuba. I’m sure there are still officals are the pentagon who would love an excuse to invade or bomb the hell out of Cuba, and a Cuban attack against Guantanomo would be the perfect pretext (an attack againest a military facility being an act of war, I’m assuming).

[Pythagras]

AFAIK - As a result of the Spanish American war Cuba was granted her independence and the US was granted the Navy base. Now whatever Cuba does is their business, and whatever we do with the Navy Base is ours. At least according to accepted international law.

[Barks_dog_food]

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a940617b.html

[Frostillicus]

The naval lease at Guantanamo can only be broken if BOTH the US and Cuba agree to do so. Somehow, I don’t believe that the US will seek to do this at anytime in the foreseeable future.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

2000 gold coins amounting to $4085 in today’s money? Is that a typo? Or else those must have been tiny, tiny coins! And do we still pay the rent in gold? I’d be interested in the details of this transaction. If so it must represent about the only current disbursement of gold certificates.

[friedo]

I believe that $4085 was the approximate value of 2000 gold coins when the lease was signed in 1903. Naturally there has been much inflation since then.

[Nametag]

That 2000 gold coins bit is nonsense. The Treaty calls for $2000 in “gold coin of the United States”; I have no idea where the $4085 comes from, but many cite it as the current lease payment.