As the saying goes, "where the couch is, there is no room for others to sleep", lions, tigers and other beasts of prey will not allow another beast to survive in their territory, and this principle is also applicable to countries, generally speaking, every powerful country will strengthen its control over its neighbors and stabilize its own borders.
As the world's only superpower, the United States has always regarded the whole of America as its own backyard, and it does not allow these countries to disobey itself, still less allow these countries to develop and grow.
But there is always an exception to everything, just in Central America, there is such a small country that has been singing against the United States, and it has been singing for nearly a hundred years, and what is unexpected is that the United States, which is a thousand times stronger in terms of comprehensive national strength, has worked hard for nearly a hundred years, and has not been able to pull out this nail in its own back garden, and this country is Cuba.
The Cuban people's 100-year history of resistance to the United States
Speaking of the grievances between the United States and Cuba, it can be traced back to nearly 200 years ago, as early as 1805, when the United States, which had just become independent, revealed its coveting of Cuba, and its President Johnson made it clear that "the occupation of Cuba is a major strategy of the United States."
In 1823, U.S. President Monroe put forward the Monroe Doctrine, declaring that "America is the America of the Americans", and the idea of turning the Americas into his own backyard was exposed, and Cuba was the top priority of the United States' expansion thereafter.
So why is Cuba so coveted by the United States? For no other reason, Cuba is a very good land, and its geographical location can be described as unique.
Cuba is located south of the United States and east of Mexico, and is a small island, so it can be said that if you control Cuba, you can control the whole of Central America, and you can further expand your sphere of influence to South America.
Secondly, the climate on the island of Cuba is humid, rich in products, is an out-and-out treasure land, here is rich in mahogany, sandalwood and Cuban pine and other precious wood, more rare and valuable is that the mineral resources here are very rich, nickel ore, iron ore, copper ore, oil ore everything, among them, nickel reserves of about 6.6 million tons, accounting for 40.27% of the world's total reserves.
Based on this, for the United States, the occupation of Cuba can greatly increase its strength, and its strategic significance is much greater than that of the United States to expand westward.
In the early 19th century, Cuba was still under the colonial rule of the Spaniards, but as a member of the Americas, Cuba had a strong will for national independence, and since 1790, national liberation movements have been rising continuously, and uprisings against the Spaniards have continued to arise in its territory.
At this time, the United States appeared to be extremely cautious and calm, it was not strong enough at that time to dare to interfere too blatantly in Cuban affairs, but it still did a lot of things secretly, on the one hand, it used its influence and its collusion with other countries to prevent Britain from intervening in Cuban affairs, because in the eyes of the United States, Spain was much easier to deal with than Britain.
On the other hand, the United States does not allow other countries in the Americas to support the Cuban independence movement, because in the view of the United States, once Cuba becomes independent and forms its own national will, it will be twice as difficult to occupy Cuba and will face greater international resistance.
In this way, under the obstruction of the United States, the Cuban people's anti-colonial struggle was carried out with great difficulty, which lasted for nearly 100 years, until 1895, when Cuba's second all-out anti-Spanish struggle was victorious, and Spain fully opened its intervention in Cuba, and Spain declared Cuba's independence and allowed it to establish its own independent government.
In 1898, the United States declared war on Spain in a vain attempt to occupy a large area of the former Spanish colonies, including Cuba, through war, and the result of the war was as the United States expected, and the decaying Spanish Empire was no match for the United States at all, and it was declared defeated in just a few months.
After the war, the United States occupied Cuba and continued to exercise colonial rule over Cuba, and the poor Cuban people finally drove away the jackals and ushered in the evil tigers, which also completely angered the Cuban people and ignited the fighting spirit of the Cuban people.
As a result, since the United States occupied Cuba, the fierce resistance of the Cuban people has not stopped, and this resistance is much greater than that encountered by the United States during the occupation of Mexican territory, and it has also caused headaches for the United States Government.
At the same time, Britain, France, and other countries could not sit idly by and watch the United States grow further, and they used their influence in an attempt to make the United States spit out the "meat" of Cuba.
At this time, the United States Government realized that the occupation of Cuba would not be easy, and it began to change its mind, setting up a puppet government in Cuba and taking the opportunity to seize Cuba's minerals, military ports and other resources, making Cuba a semi-colony.
In the following decades, the US Government completely controlled Cuba's economic lifeline, Cuba's minerals, transportation, finance, and electricity were completely monopolized by the Americans, and the Cuban people lived in the shadow of the United States and suffered unspeakably, and a wave of anger against the United States and the total expulsion of the American colonizers also burned in the hearts of all Cuban people.
Finally, in the fifties of the twentieth century, this anger exploded in full force.
Castro led the Cuban people to rebel against the puppet government and the colonial rule of the United States.
In 1955, Castro was defeated and captured, and was forced to go into exile in Mexico, but he was not discouraged, and in 1956 he led 81 rebel warriors back again, and was once again welcomed by the Cuban people, and in just three years, Castro's rebel army fought hundreds of battles with government forces, and in 1959, he completely overthrew the puppet regime and established a revolutionary government.
What makes Americans even more angry is that Castro brazenly announced to the world that Cuba would establish a socialist republic and establish a socialist state in the backyard of the United States.
The United States was determined to intervene in Cuba's affairs, but instead of sending troops directly, it sent a large number of mercenaries to invade Cuba with the intention of defeating the Cuban Revolutionary Army.
Under Castro's leadership, the Cuban people once again repelled the mercenaries, and in 1961 Castro declared that Cuba was basically stable and that a socialist revolution was to begin.
The United States was furious and announced a total blockade against Cuba, making it impossible to sell Cuba's special products, unable to bring in needed grain and other strategic materials, and Cuba's economic situation was bleak.
However, even under these circumstances, the Cuban people still did not give in, they gritted their teeth, cut back on food and clothing, and used their strong will to declare to the United States the iron backbone of the Cuban people, during which the Cuban people have always regarded the United States as their greatest enemy, and they have constantly criticized, resisted, and struggled against the United States.
However, even so, the United States has always maintained a policy of encircling Cuba without fighting and trapping it without attacking it, and socialist Cuba has continued to this day, so is it really the United States that has no way to deal with Cuba? Why has it not been able to pull out the nail that has been stuck in Cuba's backyard for nearly 100 years? The author sums up the following three reasons.
One: The Cuban people are determined to fight and are a country that cannot be completely conquered
For a colony, if the spirit of the people of this place is not retained by the government, and the national soul and the will to struggle are always retained, then the country will gain independence sooner or later; on the contrary, if the people of the colony lie down and ignore the survival of the nation, then the colony will forever lose the opportunity to be independent.
Many people know that it is not difficult for a big country to rely on military forces to defeat and occupy a small country, but once the people of this small country continue to resist, the cost of maintaining stability will be much higher than the cost of war.
In ancient and modern times, there are countless examples of powerful countries being caught in the battlefield of small countries and unable to extricate themselves, and finally being dragged down, such as Vietnam to the United States, Afghanistan to the Soviet Union, and so on.
Cuba is such a country that will never give in, and as far as the Cuban people are concerned, as long as the aggressors and colonizers do not leave Cuba, their resistance will not stop for a single day, and the guerrilla warfare waged by the Cuban people using the jungles and mountains has annoyed the colonizers, and the attacks on the colonizers' ships and minerals have caused them heavy losses.
For this reason, the United States paid extremely high costs for maintaining stability during the Cuban occupation after 1898, and in order to ensure its colonial rule in Cuba and defend its important colonies from attack, the United States had to send tens of thousands of American soldiers to the country, and also established a "local government army" led by local capitulation factions.
As a result, the United States spends extremely much on Cuban military spending, to a certain extent more than the direct benefits it has gained from Cuba. This is also the reason why the US military later withdrew from Cuba completely, and the puppet government indirectly ruled Cuba.
Later, after the establishment of socialist Cuba, the revolutionary will of the Cuban people, who had been exaggerated by communist ideology, became even firmer, and the United States saw the growing fighting spirit of the Cuban people in the process of defeating the government troops and mercenaries, and knew very well that Cuba was a hidden quagmire of war, and once the United States fully occupied this place, the Americans here would never be at peace.
It is precisely because of this consideration that the United States Government has dismissed the idea of sending troops to occupy the area once and for all, because for a fierce people like the Cuban people, unless the United States military forces completely exterminate it, it will always be the wishful thinking of the United States Government.
2. Cuba has many backers, including the Soviet Union in the past and China and Russia in the back
International factors are an important reason why Cuba has been able to maintain its independence and struggle under strong pressure from the United States.
In the early 20th century, it was the intervention of Britain and France that led to the complete withdrawal of US troops from Cuba. Britain and France did not agree to the total occupation of Cuba by the United States and threatened it with a naval ban and war.
After Castro led the Cuban people to establish a socialist state, the Soviet Union became another strong backing for Cuba, and in that era when the United States and the Soviet Union were vying for hegemony, the Soviet Union was the only country that could wrestle with the United States, and it was also the only country that could make the United States fearful.
After the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Cuba, the then leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, was overjoyed, because the socialist camp at that time was confined to Eastern Europe and Asia, and it was difficult to continue to expand, and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Cuba meant that communism stabbed the capitalist boss in the heart of the United States.
This is of great significance, both in momentum and in reality, and is of great significance to the expansion of the international socialist movement, and also has a great effect on enhancing the prestige of the Soviet Union, and can also enrich the Soviet Union's strategy and tactics toward the United States.
At the beginning of Castro's uprising, the Soviet Union provided a large amount of funds and weapons to Cuba, and after the socialist revolution began in Cuba, the Soviet Union sent a large number of talents to support Cuba's socialist construction, and the label of "little brother of the Soviet Union" was completely slapped in Cuba's face, and the United States could not cross the Soviet Union to deal with Cuba.
The most crazy move of the Soviet Union against Cuba was the deployment of medium- and short-range nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962, and once the missile base in Cuba was built, any American city would be covered by Soviet firepower, which was of great significance to the Soviet Union's victory for hegemony.
This struck a nerve in the United States, which imposed a complete blockade on Cuba shortly after discovering this and almost triggered a full-scale nuclear war with the Soviet Union, which became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Although the Soviet Union abandoned the deployment of nuclear weapons in Cuba after the crisis was resolved, the United States also loosened its control over Cuba to a certain extent, giving the Soviet Union a face.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Cuba's backing became China and Russia, and in fact, China, as a socialist camp, has always had good relations with Cuba, and the political linkage and economic and trade exchanges between the two have always been relatively close; as a support for the communist cause, China's economic assistance to Cuba has never stopped, and this has given great support to the Cuban people.
As the main successor of the Soviet Union and one of the most militarily powerful countries in the world, Russia has implemented the Soviet Union's policy of protecting Cuba to a certain extent.
As the second and third largest countries in the world in terms of comprehensive national strength, the support of China and Russia for Cuba is a factor that the United States has to consider, and it is also one of the reasons why it cannot make up its mind to pull out this nail.
Three: Immovable Cuba is a better way to maintain stability in the backyard than to occupy Cuba
The third reason is the US Government's own considerations, because all the decisions made by the government of any country are made out of national interests, and it is certainly a pleasure to pull out the nail of Cuba by military means, but the pros and cons of this are something that the United States should carefully consider. The result of the U.S. government's consideration is that maintaining the status quo in Cuba has far more to gain than directly occupying Cuba.
The first disadvantage of the direct military occupation of Cuba is the quagmire of war mentioned above, since the United States has become the world hegemon, it has suffered from the losses of small countries, the United States directly lost hundreds of billions of dollars in the Vietnam War, and the Afghanistan War lost hundreds of billions of dollars, all of which have greatly hindered the growth of the US economy, and the United States does not want to make such a mistake again.
The second disadvantage is the decline in international prestige brought about by the occupation of Cuba; after World War II, a wave of anti-colonialism has formed in the world, and every colonizer will be opposed and condemned by the entire people of the world, including the American people.
For the United States, which is in a high position, the face at this time is far greater than the benefits of occupying Cuba.
In addition to this, the need for a full-scale military occupation of Cuba for the United States has slowly diminished over time.
First of all, a hundred years ago, the United States wanted to occupy Cuba because Cuba was rich in resources and important in its geographical location, but now the United States, as the world hegemon and the center of the global economy, has a steady stream of materials coming to it every day, and the United States can still rely on its economic hegemony to buy it at a lower price.
It can be said that for the United States today, it has long lost the little supplies in Cuba, and since it can buy what it needs at a low price, why should it go to war and sacrifice the lives of soldiers to rob it?
Second, as a socialist country and a country that has always regarded anti-US as its national strategy, Cuba is very much in the way of the eyes of the United States, but in essence it can inflict very little harm on the United States.
In the face of such a harmless country, it is obviously not a rational decision to send hundreds of thousands of troops to attack and provoke oneself, and successive US administrations are well aware of this.
After all, no country in the Americas wants to live in the shadow of the United States, and now the United States can still rely on bread and sticks to stabilize the countries of the Americas, but once Cuba is occupied militarily by the United States, then the Americas will definitely be in chaos, and countries large and small, large and small, will certainly put themselves in danger and take countermeasures.
This is a huge challenge to the American system that the United States has built with great difficulty, and in summary, it is more beneficial for the US Government not to even fight Cuba than to fight Cuba, so Cuba can always be nailed to the backyard of the United States.
Under the world pattern of one superpower and many powers, I hope that the Cuban people will continue to maintain their struggle and resistance against the United States, believing that the great power will inevitably weaken, and that sooner or later the Cuban people will be able to completely shake away the haze brought about by the United States that envelops the whole of Cuba and breathe the fresh air of true freedom.