Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T02:48:07.719Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Coercion as an Instrument of Foreign Policy: U.S. Economic Measures Against Cuba and the Dominican Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Anna P. Schreiber
Anna P. Schreiber
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University
Get access

Extract

The application of economic sanctions against Rhodesia and the results of that effort raise the question of the effectiveness of economic coercion as an instrument of foreign policy. A review of U.S. economic coercion against Cuba, in effect since June 1960, and against the Dominican Republic during the period 1960–1962 may be timely and instructive. By exploring the steps leading to the application of U.S. economic coercion, its objectives, and its concrete impact on the target states it may be possible to develop some useful generalizations about the role of economic weapons as tools of foreign policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , April 1973 , pp. 387 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 U.S. Department of State (Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Senate), Events in USA-Cuban Relations: A Chronology 1957–1963. (Washington, D.C. 1963).Google Scholar

2 Between 1966 and August 1971, the U.S. arranged with Cuba to fly 3600 refugees per month to Miami on twice-daily, five-day-a-week flights. On August 31, 1971, Cuba announced that these regularly scheduled flights would be terminated. International Herald Tribune, June 26 and September 10, 1971.

3 Keesing's Contemporary Archives, June 20–27, 1964, p. 20139; hereafter cited as Keesing's.

4 New York Times, August 29, 1960.

5 Morrison, Delesseps S., Latin American Mission (New York 1965), 177–95Google Scholar; Slater, Jerome, The OAS and United States Foreign Policy (Columbus, Ohio 1967), 135–74.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 167–72.

7 Ball, M. Margaret, The OAS in Transition (Durham, N.C. 1969), 481–82.Google Scholar

8 See, generally, Szulc, Tad and Meyer, Karl E., The Cuban Invasion: Chronicle of a Disaster (New York 1962).Google Scholar

9 Bonsai, Philip, “Cuba, Castro, and the U.S.,” Foreign Affairs, XLV (January 1967), 260–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Boorstein, Edward, The Economic Transformation of Cuba (New York 1968), 25–29.Google Scholar

11 Gonzalez, Edward, “Castro's Revolution, Cuban Communist Appeals, and the Soviet Response,” World Politics, XXI (October 1968), 39–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Ibid.; see also Clissold, Stephen, ed., Soviet Relations with Latin America 1918–1968: A Documentary Survey (London 1970), 43–44.Google Scholar

13 Valdés, Nelson P., “La diplomacia del azucar: Estados Unidos y Cuba,” Aportes, No. 18 (October 1970), 99–119.Google Scholar

14 Bonsai, (fn. 9), 267–73.Google Scholar

15 Clissold, (fn. 12), 254.Google Scholar

16 Hilton, Ronald, “Castrophobia in the United States,” The YearbooK of World Affairs 1964 (London 1964), 56–72.Google Scholar

17 Statement by Sokolsky, George, spokesman for nationalist conservatives, quoted in Szulc and Meyer (fn. 8), 59.Google Scholar

18 Philip Bonsai, the U.S. Ambassador to Cuba, suggests that the oil companies might have reluctantly agreed to process Soviet oil if the U.S. Government had not pressed them to refuse. See Bonsai, (fn. 9), 272.Google Scholar

19 New York Times, July 4 and 6, 1960; Szulc, and Meyer, (fn. 8), 62.Google Scholar

20 New York Times, March 16, 19, and 20, 1960.

21 New York Times, January 23, and 24, and March 7, 1960; Smith, Robert F., The United States and Cuba (New York 1960), 180–81.Google Scholar See also Valdés (fn. 13) generally.

22 Szulc, and Meyer, (fn. 8), 62Google Scholar; Smith, (fn. 21), 181Google Scholar; New York Times, June 22, 1960.

23 Szulc, and Meyer, (fn. 8), 63–64Google Scholar; New YorK Times, June 25, July 10, and October 20, 1960.

24 Szulc, and Meyer, (fn. 8), 65–72.Google Scholar

25 Slater, (fn. 5), 139.Google Scholar

26 Clissold, (fn. 12), 44, 47Google Scholar; New York Times, September 9, 1962.

27 Clissold, (fn. 12), 51.Google Scholar

28 New York Times, July 10, 1960.

29 Clissold, (fn. 12), 266–71.Google Scholar

30 U.S. Department of Commerce, US. Trade with Cuba 1960–1963 (Overseas Business Reports, May 1964).Google Scholar

31 The Guardian, June 9, 1961.

32 The Sunday Times (London), May 26, 1963. See also U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the External Security Act and other Internal Security Laws, Exports of Strategic Materials to the U.S.S.R. and Other Soviet Bloc Countries (Washington, D.C. 1961), 212.Google Scholar

33 New York Times, September 11, 1963.

34 New York Times, September 27 and December 21, 1961. Several British business men lost U.S. export privileges after attempting to buy oil refinery equipment for re-export to Cuba. See Daily Telegraph, March 23, 1962. For a similar case, see The Times (London), January 4, 1963.

35 Draper, Theodore, Castro's Revolution: Myths and Realities (New York 1962), 131–34.Google Scholar See also Boorstein, (fn. 10), 43–154.Google Scholar

36 Draper, Theodore, Castroism: Theory and Practice (London 1965), 137.Google Scholar

37 Dumont, , Cuba, socialisme, et développement (Paris 1964), 104–11.Google Scholar

38 New York Times, September 16, 1962.

39 New YorK Times, December 21, 1963; New York Herald Tribune (European Edition), December 23, 1963.

40 New YorK Herald Tribune (European Edition), November 19, 1961 and February 7, 1962.

41 Le Monde, January 22, 1963; New YorK Times, September 17, 1963.

42 Newsweek, January 25, 1971.

43 Buck, Wilbur F., “Cuba's Agricultural Output is Lagging Despite Shifts in Farm Policy,” Foreign Agriculture, VI (January 29, 1968), 3.Google Scholar

44 Carr, Raymond, “Cuban Dilemmas,” World Today, XXIII (January 1967), 40.Google Scholar See also Annual Register of World Events: 1964, Macadam, Ivison, ed. (London 1964), 201– 202.Google Scholar Hereafter volumes in this series are cited as Annual Register.

45 Annual Register: 1963, 206–207.

46 Buck (fn. 43).

47 New York Times, April 28 and May 13, 1962; Financial Times, June 5, 1963.

48 New York Times, August 20, 1960.

49 Annual Register: 1964, 193.

50 The Times (London), December 17, 1963.

51 Speech by Ernesto “Che” Guevara; see New YorK Times (International Edition), December 26, 1962.

52 Draper, (fn. 36), 147.Google Scholar

53 Source for 1959–1961: New YorK Times, June 27, 1961; source for 1962–1969: Gonzalez, Edward, “Castro, the Limits of Charisma,” Problems of Communism, XXI (July-August 1970), 17Google Scholar; source for 1970: International Herald Tribune, July 20, 1971.

54 New York Times, February 14 and June 2, 1962; interview with “Che” Guevara, in L'Express, July 25, 1963. 55Google ScholarGonzalez, (fn. 53), 15.Google Scholar

56 Ibid., 13–14.

57 New YorK Times, September 16, 1962. At that time, one-third of all Soviet deliveries to Cuba were carried in NATO-flag ships. The cost of chartering was estimated to be $1,250,000 per month in 1962.

58 Meeting's, February 1–8, 1964, p. 19888.

59 Clissold, (fn. 12), 57.Google Scholar Romania agreed to supply oil-drilling equipment to Cuba in 1968, at a time when the Soviet Union used Cuban dependence on Soviet oil as a means of bringing pressure on Castro.

60 Lieuwen, Edwin, The United States and the Challenge to Security in Latin America (Columbus, Ohio 1966), 43.Google Scholar

61 Clissold, (fn. 12), 51–52Google Scholar; Lieuwen, (fn. 70), 38–43.Google Scholar

62 Ibid.

63 Gonzalez, (fn. 53), 18–19Google Scholar; Clissold, (fn. 12), 56–57.Google Scholar

64 Gonzalez, (fn. 53), 24;Google Scholar speech of April 22, 1970.

65 For a discussion of U.S. policy in the Dominican Republic during this period see Morrison, (fn. 5), 114–15, 118–28Google Scholar; Slater, (fn. 5), 184–85, 195–204.Google Scholar

66 Ibid., 190–92.

67 Ibid., 183–211; Morrison, (fn. 5), 118–28.Google Scholar

68 New York Times, December 21, 1960 and January 4, 1961.

69 Slater, (fn. 5), 186–89.Google Scholar

70 New York Times, July 21, 1960.

71 New York Times, August 24, 1960.

72 New York Times, September 23, 1960.

73 New York Times, April 1, 1961.

74 New York Times, September 30, 1960.

75 Morrison, (fn. 5), 130–32Google Scholar; New York Times, September 23, 1961.

76 New York Times, April 27, and August 24 and 31, 1960. The Dominican Communist Party was legalized in April 1960. In August 1960, Soviet agents were reported to be in the Dominican Republic for trade talks.

77 Slater, (fn. 5), 214Google Scholar, n. 24.

78 New York Times, September 21, 1961; Morrison, (fn. 5), 129–41.Google Scholar

79 United Nations General Assembly, Official Records (16th session), 1021st plenary meeting, October 2, 1961, pp. 183–86.Google Scholar

80 Morrison, (fn. 5), 130–41.Google Scholar

81 New York Times, September 23 and October 27, 1961.

82 Morrison, (fn. 5), 145–48.Google Scholar

83 New YorK Times, November 18, 19, and 22, 1961.

84 New York Times, November 28, 1961.

85 New York Times, December 1 and 5, 1961.

86 New York Times, December 17, 19, and 20, 1961.

87 Slater, (fn. 5), 281–82Google Scholar; New York Times, November 30, 1961.

88 New York Times, January 10, 1962.

89 New York Times, January 18, 1962; Keesing's, February 3–10, 1962, pp. 18577–78.