(US Navy image attached of the facility at GTMO, Cuba).

There is some commotion out there in the wider world this morning. In Lithuania, the big NATO conference is underway. We don’t recall this much excitement about one of those since the last time the European alliance was blustering about Bosnia, and Russia’s attempt to reassert part of the old Warsaw Pact. That has been a matter of controversy through the last 500 days of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine. Our President is on the way to join it with a bunch of military issues flying about.

Yesterday there was the matter of shortage in 155MM artillery shells. To rectify the situation, we are apparently providing cluster munitions that have an unfortunate reputation in their effect on soldiers and civilians. And there are echoes of old Russian times as the resurgent Chinese are re-activating the big SIGINT site south of Havana that Moscow gave up at the close of the Cold War.

It is a sprawling base, a hundred miles away from Key West. Along with reports of hundreds, if not thousands, of young Chinese men arriving at the open southern Border, there is rising concern about what their purpose might be. Even back in the old Cold War days, there was never an attempt to deploy young men across the international border. It is an interesting change of affairs, isn’t it?

Some history might be useful to put things in context. As you know, we have been looking at some of the relics of that conflict, and will see some of them pop up this week in Lithuania. But there is more happening right here south of Miami!

America’s part of the story is more than a century old. On January 1,1899, the Spanish administration retired from Cuba, and that same day General John R. Brooke installed a military government on the island. This was the beginning of the United States occupation of Cuba.

However, the United States government was bound by the Teller Amendment, which placed Cuba in a category different from the other areas previously controlled by Spain. General Brooke was replaced by General Leonard Wood in December of that year. Wood was a muscular specimen of the American Military officer, and a former United States surgeon general. Utilizing the superb epidemiologic skills of Major Walter Reed he set out to conquer malaria and Yellow Fever. Schools were built and students were enrolled. Public works programs were commenced to improve railroads, roads, and bridges.

America did not intend to rule as a colonial power, at least not formally. There was a sharp difference in the view of the Cuban versus the Pilipino in terms of the capacity for self-governance. The road to Cuban self-determination was predicated on protections of American interests. Adoption of a constitution providing universal suffrage, a two-chamber legislature and a directly-elected president was contingent on the acceptance of a series of clauses appended to the constitution.

They were drafted by Secretary of War Elihu Root and came to be known as the Platt Amendment, similar language being attached to the arms appropriation bill of 1901. Among other terms, the United States was permitted to purchase or lease lands for coaling and naval stations. On June 12, 1901, Cuba ratified the amendment as a permanent addendum to the Cuban Constitution of 1901. It had been bluntly presented as the only alternative to permanent military occupation.

The United States acquired rights in perpetuity to lease a naval coaling station at Guantánamo Bay on February 23, 1903. The deal was signed by the first President Roosevelt, late of the Roughriders, who charged up San Juan Hill (or perhaps it was a dismounted stroll and covered by U.S. Colored Troops.) The Bay was to be leased for 2,000 gold coins per year. Under the terms of the May 1903 Treaty of Relations and the Lease of Agreement of July 1903, the agreement could only be abrogated by the agreement of both parties. Which is to say, the U.S. was going to stay until it didn’t want to anymore.

The Cubans annulled the Platt Amendment in 1934, but a new lease on the naval reservation was negotiated between the Roosevelt administration and a Cuban government favorably disposed to the United States. One of the troika of signatures was future strongman Fulgencio Batista. When the Revolution triumphed in 1959, the U.S. put the mainland off limits. Only the Cuban employees on the base were permitted to cross the fence-line. Legally speaking, the Cubans reason, that Guantánamo should have been returned to Cuba at this time.

The United States seemed to think that the billions confiscated by Fidel complicated the issue. And there was a vocal constituency in Miami that permitted no deviation from the hard line. There the matter sat for nearly forty years, Frontier Troops looking down from their observation post on the high ground at Mirador Malones and the Marines looking back over the wire.

Ronald Reagan was perfectly candid about the motivation. He told Soviet Journalists in October 1985 that Guantánamo had a political mission: to impose a U.S. presence, even if the Cuban Government didn’t like it. Fidel claims the agreement was coercion, pure and simple, that the Cuban government of the time was headed by an American-citizen, and that the agreement is null and void.

The United States maintains that the agreement is legitimate and that the terms are “perpetual.” Every year the U.S. sends a check for the lease amount, but the Cuban government has never cashed them.

Jack Nicholson was even more blunt in the movie “A few Good Men,” which was set in Guantánamo. “The Truth?” he asked Tom Cruise. “You can’t handle the truth!”

We drove down to the Headquarters where the station UH-1 Huey helicopter was turning. “I’ll let the crew chief give you the safety brief on the aircraft but I want to see if I can get you oriented before we launch. We are on Leeward Point Field, which is on the western Come on! Let’s go for a spin!” One of his petty officers handed out Mickey Mouse helmets, cranial devices with earphones and boom microphones. We boarded the Station UH-1 helicopter, an unarmed version of the utility bird that dominated the skies of Southeast Asia. We were going to take a look at Guantánamo’s new mission, a place that is American without being America.

We plugged the headsets first and showed “thumbs up” that we were in contact. Then we got the brief on how to strap ourselves in. The Members got special attention, since the Captain did not want to scatter members of the delegation across the barren hills. The doors were going to stay wide open, so we wouldn’t miss a thing.

“We are in a unique place” he said. “It is sort of ironic that the Military presence here has had a profound affect on the environment. It essentially has created a wildlife refuge. We live in harmony with the surroundings. We are a unique preserve of the Cuban ecosystem. Take the iguana” he said, waving his hands against the roar of the engines. We lurched into the air, nose slightly down, gaining speed. The breeze was welcome and the Captain’s voice boomed and crackled through the earphones.

“The Iguana was one of the most common animals on this island. They were everywhere! Today, this is the only place they exist.” I looked at the Captain with a quizzical look, not wanting to key my mike. “The Cubans have
eaten them all. They are all gone except for the ones we have right here.”

Our flight path took us over a series of camps, some with buildings, a few with people living in them. Others seemed to be just surveyed places on the dusty soil.

“I have been instructed to set up facilities that can accommodate 10,000 people, in case the situation demands it. We made some progress on migrant exchange with the Cubans last year, but we still have some families here that are being processed for Emigration. We are keeping the Cubans separate from the Haitians and anyone else who shows up. Policy stuff. Not our job to figure that out down here. That is a Washington issue.”

We wheeled over Camps Alpha and Bravo, and saw areas where other camps might be placed. There seemed to be plenty of room in cse we need it. The pilot put the helo in tight turns that let us look out the door, straight down. A
group of people who might have been Cuban looked up at us from one of the camps. I like helicopters. I just don’t know why they fly. I also don’t know why we didn’t just fly back to the airfield. Maybe it was for theatrical purposes.

Then we were back on the ground and then back on the speedboat and then I was in the back of the little T-39 with Mr. Dixon’s artwork and by ten o’clock that night we were wheels down at Andrews and I had the Congressmen
on their way. At the office, our Boss seemed happy and I didn’t have to be at work until 0700 the next morning. I drove off the airbase and got on the Beltway headed toward Virginia. I was tired, but probably not as tired as the young Chinese fellows who were going to be learning a lot more about Iguanas.

It was pretty clear from that visit that we had to stay in Guantánamo. If only for the sake of the lizards.

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