(03-23-2016 09:42 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

Quote:On November 5, Kennedy’s secret taping system in the Oval Office recorded in a conversation with his national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy, on whether to send William Attwood, who was serving as a deputy to U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson at the United Nations, to Havana to meet secretly with Castro. Attwood, Bundy told the President, “now has an invitation to go down and talk to Fidel about terms and conditions in which he would be interested in a change of relations with the U.S.” The president is heard agreeing to the idea but asking if “we can get Attwood off the payroll before he goes” so as to “sanitize” him as a private citizen in case word of the secret meeting leaked.

On November 14, Howard arranged for Attwood to come to her home and talk via telephone to Castro’s top aide, Rene Vallejo, about obtaining the Cuban agenda for a secret meeting between in Havana with the Cuban commandante. Vallejo agreed to transmit a proposed agenda to Cuba’s UN ambassador, Lechuga, to give to the Americans. When Attwood passed this information onto Bundy at the White House, he was told that when the agenda was received, “the president wanted to see me at the White House and decide what to say and whether to go [to Cuba] or what we should do next.”

“That was the 19th of November,” Attwood recalled. “Three days before the assassination.”

But Kennedy also sent another message of potential reconciliation to Castro. His emissary, a French journalist named Jean Daniel, had met with Kennedy in Washington to discuss Cuba. Kennedy gave him a message for Fidel Castro: Better relations were possible, and the two countries should work toward an end to hostilities. On November 22, Daniel passed that message to Castro, and the two were discussing it optimistically over lunch when Castro received a phone call reporting that Kennedy had been shot. “This is terrible,” Castro told Daniel, realizing that his mission had been aborted by an assassins’ bullet. “There goes your mission of peace.”

https://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2013/11/...t-to-cuba/

That's actually pretty interesting stuff. Makes sense to try to sway Cuba away from the Russians immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis and end the hostile posturing. As far as normalizing relationships, I don't know that many presidents have given it much thought since the Russians basically abandoned Castro and withdrew from the region. Honestly, there wasn't and still isn't much benefit to the US. Is it overdue? Probably. Necessary? No. It's a feather in Obama's hat basically.

When can we start bringing Cuban cigars into the country?

(03-23-2016 01:10 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  When can we start bringing Cuban cigars into the country?

That's the only thing I am wondering about.

(03-23-2016 02:24 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 01:10 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  When can we start bringing Cuban cigars into the country?

That's the only thing I am wondering about.

My GF went down there a few months ago and I think you can bring back a limited amount with you. Different than importing, obviously, and it's limited to the few people that get to go down there (I'm not sure the whole list but I think students can go for certain programs and, obviously, certain government trips such as the current one) but it is a start.

(03-23-2016 02:24 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 01:10 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  When can we start bringing Cuban cigars into the country?

That's the only thing I am wondering about.

Dominican Republic has really upped their game. Try some.

(03-23-2016 01:10 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  When can we start bringing Cuban cigars into the country?

one of my employees smoked one the other day.....he made it a point to tell me.....

my only response was, "did you inhale?"