Talking Cuba on the USS Sequoia Presidential Yacht
09 October 2009 1:37 pm by Taylor Marsh
–bumped–
Steve Clemons, Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation; Publisher, The Washington Note, with honored guest. –more pictures here–
Steve Clemons and the New America Foundation picked quite a venue to discuss and dream about what’s possible in U.S. – Cuba relations. The USS Sequoia Presidential Yacht. Guests included Amb. Jorge Bolaños Suarez, whom I met, as well as Jacob Heilbrunn, senior editor of National Interest and author of They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons.
Steve’s got a post up showing a letter former Former Sec of State George Shultz saying: QUOTE ME: End the US-Cuba Embargo. End the Travel Ban. An older post from the summer quoting Brent Scowcroft saying the same thing emphasizes how ridiculous this policy is today. It’s long overdue.
The event tonight got me to thinking about how easily normalizing relations with Cuba could have been. Something that might have been done already if Obama had the vision. I say this not as an expert on Cuba, but as someone who can see the political winds and only wonder what’s the hold up? It’s a matter of will, which seems to be sorely lacking.
And though the topic was focusing on Cuba, it was also about a broader picture of what we could be doing throughout the world now that Barack Obama is president. Hoping for bold things, yet not seeing near enough so far.
The buzz earlier tonight also had to do with Gov. Bill Richardson’s speech on Cuba, which he’ll deliver tomorrow. Word is that it’s going to be a good one. It just might be the thing to prove Steve Clemons’ point that Richardson should be appointed Special Presidential US-Cuba Envoy.
I can’t begin to tell you all the history on the USS Sequioa. Seeing the bathroom in the presidential cabin that was lowered 3 inches on the request of L.B.J. The dent in the beautiful table put there by an angry, poker playing Harry Truman. Pictures of Bill Clinton, Leonid Brezhnev, F.D.R., John F. Kennedy, even Teddy Kennedy and a story of him blowing out Jack’s birthday candles, because he couldn’t bend over. Bob Hope and pictures of his 80th birthday. Just remarkable moments spent on this beautiful piece of history, beginning with a beautiful sunset on a mild autumn Washington, D.C. evening. Not to mention the wonderful conversations that ranged across the foreign policy spectrum with so many people, including finally meeting and chatting with Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, someone whom I consider an American hero. It was just a grand evening.
Steve Clemons, Jacob Heilbrunn and other guests.
MORE PHOTOS HERE
Sunset off the top deck of the Sequoia
Favored chest and lamp of Pres. John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy, adorning presidential cabin below deck.
Woven carpet with Presidential Seal
