The United States first placed an embargo on Cuba in 1960, one year after Fidel Castro seized power and one year before Barack Obama was born. It has since become part of the furniture of American foreign policy. Five decades of use will wear anything thin, and the logic behind the embargo looks ever weaker. It has failed to dislodge the Castro regime of either Fidel or, since 2006, his brother Raul. Indeed, by enabling the island's rulers to present themselves as the victims of hegemonic bullying, it has shored up support for Cuba abroad and given an excuse for totalitarianism at home. America's allies think the embargo is counter-productive at best, vindictive at worst.
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