Is the Cold War Really Over?

Alejandro Torrebiarte

US History

April 23, 2015

Is the Cold War really over?

The Cold War was one of the most tense moments in history, as one seemingly insignificant event almost caused a nuclear battle that could have led to WWIII. Today, there is still much debate on whether the Cold War ever finished? There is a lot of clear evidence on both sides, but the circumstances in Cuba are a clear example that the Cold War isn't really over, as the repercussions like shady relationships between Russia and Cuba, the still present US embargo on Cuba, and the ever-present flow of military supplies coming in from Russia affect Cuba every day.

Even though the missiles from Russia have been long taken away from the territory of Cuba, these two countries still hold many private talks not only pertaining to communism, but to questionable agreements that give Cuba more power. Over the past few years, Russia has been constantly sending different types of supplies to Cuba to help their economy. Some of these goods are weapons, food, oil, money, resources, etc. After Cuba and the U.S. started talking about opening embassies in each others countries, Russia decided to re-open a spy base in Havana that had been closed in 2001 due to insufficient funds. Ruslan Pukhov, the director of the Centre for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, says that the reason that they are opening their facility is to continue to compete with the U.S.’ dominance of countries in the western hemisphere (Luhn, 2014). Russia has also sent a spy ship from the Cold War era to a dock in Cuba, and for some in was coincidentally at the same time that US diplomats were traveling to Cuba to meet with Cuban officials to discuss how to improve their relationship (Avila, 2015). Another sign of a friendship with benefits between Russia and Cuba is the official pardon by Putin of almost $29 billion (90% of total) of debt that Cuba had to Russia (Mosendz, 2014). The author believes that Putin forgave the debt to improve the relationship between the two biggest oil companies in Cuba and Russia, CUPET and Rosneft respectively. Cuba is reported to have around $900 billion worth of oil in its land, so Russia’s pardon could turn out to be a home run.

Another reason why it is clear that the war isn’t over is because the economical embargo from the US against Cuba still hasn’t been lifted. This embargo has seen Cuba’s economy greatly affected, as it not only doesn’t receive products from the US, but also from its allies. If you visit Havana, you can see that most have the technology and infrastructure that is still from the 1960s, the time frame when the embargo started. Even though president Obama has been pushing Congress to make a change and lift the embargo, it’s clear that it will take a long time before Washington will give in to trading with Cuba (Congress Should Lift Cuba Embargo). The only clear benefit that is seen to ending or reducing the embargo is an increase in tourism in the island of Cuba. If this is one of the only major benefits to either side, it’s kind of obvious why the US is reluctant to submit to change. Also, the US doesn’t care as much about the Cuban economy, it takes much more importance to addressing the human rights situation and trying to help the people have more freedom and rights, like telephone, internet, boats, etc (Gallucci, 2014). If this embargo ever gets lifted, it would prove to be a key step towards ending the Cold War.

The last alarming, and maybe the most obvious reason why the Cold War still isn’t over is that Cuba is still receiving military aid from Russia, event though the war is supposed to be over!  Not only are Russia sending military supplies to Cuba, but they have also planned to hold a joint practice operation with North Korea and Russia (Keck, 2015). They have also initiated a plan to re-open their military and naval base in the port of Lourdes. Russia sees the US dominance in the west as a threat to their universal safety, so they are installing new bases all around the islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific to reassert their dominance. In these new bases, they have installed everything from soldiers to boats to missiles (Lulko, 2012). Since the countries that belong to NATO have Russia well surrounded with many bases that are capable of launching nuclear warheads, Russia wants to be able to return the favor if indeed the conflict grows to a much larger size than anticipated.