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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

August 22, 1960: US Charges Cuba Erecting "Cane Curtain"

"Cuba is establishing a training program for Communist agents and guerrillas to spread the Communist revolution throughout Latin America," the United States charged at a meeting of the Organization of American States on this day in 1960. "In recent months, the government of Cuba has established close commercial, cultural and diplomatic relations with the governments of the principal Communist countries, especially with the Soviet Union. We are deeply concerned over the fact that in connection with these events, journalists, members of the government, labor union leaders and even certain high government officials have repeatedly praised warmly the way of life prevailing in those nations, and have suggested in speeches delivered both within and outside of Cuba coincidences and similarities of aims and procedures between the social revolutions of those countries and the Cuban revolution," the U.S. statement said. "The Cuban government has recently announced that outstanding exit permits will be cancelled as of Aug. 22, 1960. This will result in a tightened official control of foreign travel by Cubans and other residents of Cuba, and is suggestive of the practice of Communist governments in this respect. This amounts to a partial raising of what my be called a 'cane curtain' serving to isolate the Cuban people from normal and customary contacts with the outside world."


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