Thaw brings relations full-circle

A man transports a mattress on a tricycle through Old Havana. Photo / AP / Ramon Espinosa

It may seem hard to believe, after so many decades of rancour, that Fidel Castro first came to power with the aid of the US Government.

In March 1958, the Eisenhower Administration suspended arms shipments to the Havana regime led by General Batista. Within a year, Castro's rebels had seized control.

In 1959, the new Cuban leader was welcomed by then-Vice-President Richard Nixon on an unofficial US visit. Yet relations between the two neighbours were soon under strain.

In 1960, Cuba began importing Soviet oil. The Castro Government introduced crippling taxes on American imports and nationalised hundreds of private companies, including subsidiaries of US firms. The US imposed an economic embargo and President Dwight Eisenhower cut diplomatic ties with Havana.

Eisenhower laid plans for an invasion of Cuba by US-backed exiles, but it was the Kennedy Administration that carried them out in April 1961, with disastrous results. The ragtag troops that landed at the Bay of Pigs were mostly killed or captured.

In February 1962, Kennedy issued a permanent economic embargo. That October, US planes photographed Soviet missile sites in Cuba, setting off the nuclear stand-off between the superpowers. The crisis ended when the Kremlin withdrew its missiles, after securing a US promise not to invade Cuba.

The US continued its efforts to assassinate Castro. In the early 1960s there were several outlandish CIA plots against the Cuban leader, including one plan to kill him with an exploding cigar.

After Nixon was elected President in 1968, the US officially ended its campaign to overthrow Castro. Nixon's successors, Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, both made attempts to normalise relations with Havana.

In 1980, around 125,000 Cuban refugees fled the island for the US, damaging relations further.

President Bill Clinton made fresh overtures to Havana. In 1996, however, Cuba shot down two planes in international airspace, killing one Cuban and three Americans.

When Raul Castro took control in 2006, it appeared to present an opportunity for rapprochement. Significantly, Raul Castro and Barack Obama were photographed shaking hands last December at the funeral of Nelson Mandela. If it was not the moment that started the thaw, it was a hairdryer in the icebox.

-Independent