Clinton, Castro, and Jesse Helms

Havana, 2013                                                                         Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images

Every few months, someone in public life (and here I include the media) brings up the issue of Cuba, and specifically, the seeming absurdity of our continuing embargo against that country. The whole thing fascinates me (http://somanyinterestingthings.blogspot.com/2013/06/postcards-from-cuba.html, http://somanyinterestingthings.blogspot.com/2013/04/on-occasion-of-invasion.html). While the Cold War was at its peak, while there were Soviet missiles on the island, maybe, but why now? Can the original exiles still have that much influence in Congress? This article's authors explain why it will be all but impossible for any U.S. president to end the embargo now, thanks to a politically expedient action taken by then-President Bill Clinton: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/the-1996-incident-that-made-it-nearly-impossible-to-repeal-the-cuba-embargo/381107/