Student Help: FRUS

Framework for analysis

Dimension + examples in the late 1957 documents

1. Actors involved: State Department, US Embassy in Cuba, Pentagon, CIA, Attorney General (some proper names: Rubottom, Smith)
2. Actors mentioned: GOC (Batista), Cienfuegos mutineers, Miami Diaspora (Prio), Rebels (Fidel), US Congress, Public Opinion, International Communism.
3. Goals of actors involved: a) maximization of US international security and hemispheric defense (Pentagon); b) preservation of alliance with Cuban conservative elements (US Embassy in Cuba); c) Protection of capitalism/US property in Cuba ("Morley's goal," more imagined than real, but has some archival evidence); d) protection of international reputation (State Department); e) appeasement of US public opinion (politically/electorally minded types in State Department, Attorney). TWO CRUCIAL ISSUES: trade-offs b/w goals; negotiations between actors with different goals.
4. Concrete issues discussed: a) Prio problem (application of neutrality laws against exiles conspiring against Batista and supplying rebels), b) violation of MAP problem, c) radicalization of rebellion, d) Batista's dictatorial measures.
5. Policies suggested (means to achieve goals in 3). Big picture: "moderation" of political process. Problem: rebels and dictator do not trust each other, so prisoner's dilemma. US places incentives for moderation on both sides. For Batista, combination of sticks (suspension of arms sales, public condemnation) and carrots (control of Prio, public support). To break the vicious circle of distrust, US volunteers as a credible enforcer of moderation. Suspend arms if Batista does not de-escalate. Reinforce Batista is rebels do not de-escalate. Did not foresee the event that neither would de-escalate!
   

Praetorian Students, American Tanks

1933: Armed Students (and the books?). Key actors in the overthrow of Machado's government. Not just "social" mobilization: military mobilization as well! Samuel Huntington, following pioneering ideas of Sociologist Gino Germani, was the first to link modernization and praetorianism. Yet he dismissed students as a powerful agent of political change. The population of Universidad de la Habana may disagree.


1950s: where do these tanks come from? MAP? If used for internal repression (what else in Cuba?), public opinion in US may get nervous and constraint what decision-makers can do to help Batista rebuild political order.

Too big a university for too small an Island?
Aerial view of the Universidad de la Habana in the 1940s