Can someone explain to me why we kiss communist China's ass and play nice with communist Vietnam,etc but can't even talk to Cuba?

This isn't about whether or not we should have gone into Nam. We shouldn't have. I really wish we hadn't. I'm trying to figure out why we can play with some Communist countries and not the one closest to us. We wouldn't even accept their offer of medical equipment and personnel after Katrina.

They make our crap for pennies on the dollar.

Personally, I would like to see Cuba as a nice tourist spot

Sammy, I think it's about not losing votes in Florida, where the Cuban expatriots are a lage and vocal bloc. Both parties have been loathe to make enemies of them, which would surely have happened upon normalization of relations with Castro's Cuba. I hope now that Fidel is on the way out we will have the excuse we need to end this embargo.

Grampa, I think that sums it up. Our government officials get ticked off when someone stands up to them. Castro did that, so they have punished his people for 47 years because our government thinks punishing them will make them remove Castro. I think those kinds of actions gave a greater standing to Castro.

Didn't our govt finally realize that Baptiste was bad for the average Cuban person and when we looked at all the possible revolution leaders, we thought Castro was the best? Then we he wouldn't be our puppet, we got pissed?

I have always hated that someone from Cuba is welcomed here as soon as they set foot on our soil, but Haitians, Mexicans, even Chinese at times are blocked and sent back home.

It just makes no sense except, politically as you said, grampa and Thack.

I remember the night that we heard it on the radio. The Cuban rebels had won, Batista was deposed, and Castro had that day declared he was a marxist, for God's sake! Anti-communism was our ional religion at the time, and we were betrayed, because Castro had kept his marxism to himself until that day. America holds a grudge for a long time. But remember, in the year after that day, Castro expropriated everyone's property and exacted revenge on the propertied people who hadn't supported him. Those were the folks who fled by boat to Florida. They or their descendants are still there, and they still hate Castro for what he did to them. It may take another generation for that to subside.

It took about 50 years after the Korean War for many South Koreans to begin to insist on a reunification with the north. It won't happen, but it took that long for the sentiment to take hold.

It will probably be the same for Cuba and Florida, lol.

Another question. SHOULD politicians kiss the asses of those Cubans in Florida?