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Reopening Channels of Communication with Cuba
By Wayne S. Smith
May 8, 2009

“U.S. Plans Informal Meetings With Cuban Diplomats to Improve Communications” (news article, April 27) reported government officials as indicating the Obama administration to be quietly pushing to reopen channels of communication with Cuba. This simply makes sense. How, after all, do two countries resolve their disagreements without talking?

Further, I have just returned from Havana, where I accompanied the mayor of Galveston, Tex., Lyda Ann Thomas, to discuss with Cuban officials how our two countries might more effectively cooperate in defending against the hurricanes that seem to be striking us both with increasing frequency and ferocity. One can hardly argue against the need for or the logic of that!

We were also struck, however, by the way in which every Cuban official with whom we spoke, including those in the Foreign Ministry, emphasized Cuba’s interest in having a constructive dialogue with the United States on a much broader basis. As one official put it: “It’s been 50 years! Surely it’s time to begin to talk — about so many things!”

And after all, if we have normal diplomatic and trade relations with Communist China and Vietnam, surely we can at least begin a dialogue with the Cubans, a dialogue that can result in reduced tensions and a more propitious atmosphere for the kind of changes we’d hope eventually to see.

Wayne S. Smith is now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington. He is former chief of the U.S. interests section in Havana and is author of "The Closest of Enemies: A Personal and Diplomatic Account of the Castro Years."