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Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony in Twentieth-Century Latin America pp 229–250Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Limits of Anglo-American Cooperation in Cuba, 1945–1959

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Part of the book series: Britain and the World ((BAW))

Abstract

Before the Cuban Revolution of 1959, British governments and diplomats sought to protect their interests in Cuba, always sensitive to reactions from the US government, a vital transatlantic ally. The allies continued their wartime cooperation over sugar supplies after the conflict ended. Cuban sugar remained important to Britain’s refining industry and continued food rationing. Following two democratically elected but highly corrupt Cuban governments, both the US State Department and the British Foreign Office came to recognise the benefits of Fulgencio Batista’s abrupt return to Cuba’s political scene in 1952. Everything changed, however, when the insurgency led by Fidel Castro gained strength after late 1956. London and Washington became increasingly concerned about a political upheaval beyond US control. The issue of arms sales, which eventually created serious embarrassment for the Conservative government in Britain, became a touchstone of US and British policy toward Batista’s regime, and of Anglo-American cooperation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is an immense literature on the US intervention in Cuba and the Platt Amendment, but see especially Louis A. Pérez, Jr., The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998; and Cuba under the Platt Amendment, 1902–1934. Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986; see also Joseph Smith, The Spanish-American War: Conflict in the Caribbean and the Pacific 1895–1902. London: Longman, 1994.​

  2. 2.

    Jorge Renato Ibarra Guitart, El Tratado Anglo-Cubano de 1905: Estados Unidos contra Europa. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 2006.

  3. 3.

    Louis A. Perez, Jr., Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, 209–19; Jorge I. Domínguez, Cuba: Order and Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978, 54–9, 77–9.

  4. 4.

    Thomas Brimelow (First Secretary Commercial to His Majesty’s Legation at Havana), Cuba: Economic and Commercial Conditions in Cuba, Sept. 1949. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office (hereafter HMSO), 1950. R.A. Humphreys, Latin America and the Second World War: Volume Two 1942–1945. London: Athlone Press, 1982, 223. Bill Albert employs several sources to calculate accumulated investment in Cuba by 1913 at £48 million for the United Kingdom and £45 million for the United States: South America and the World Economy from Independence to 1930. London: Macmillan, 1983, 34.

  5. 5.

    Brimelow, Cuba: Economic and Commercial Conditions.

  6. 6.

    Circular from Anthony Eden enclosing ‘Memorandum: “Bones of Contention” in Latin America’, 22 April 1943, BT 11/3279, UK National Archives (hereafter UKNA).

  7. 7.

    Rory Miller, Britain and Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. London: Longman, 1993, 213–14.

  8. 8.

    Andrew Gamble, Britain in Decline: Economic Policy, Political Strategy and the British State. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1994, 101.

  9. 9.

    Peter Howlett, ‘The Wartime Economy, 1939–1945’, in Roderick Floud and Donald McCloskey (eds.). The Economic History of Britain Since 1700, Volume 3: 1939–1992. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 1–31; Sir Alexander Cairncross, ‘Economic Policy and Performance, 1945–1964’, in Floud and McCloskey (eds.), The Economic History of Britain, Vol. 3, 32–66.

  10. 10.

    Brimelow, Cuba: Economic and Commercial Conditions.

  11. 11.

    Francis Rundall (head of North American Department), Minute, 6 March 1947, FO 371/60879/AN825, UKNA.

  12. 12.

    Vanni Pettinà, ‘A Preponderance of Politics: The Auténtico Governments and US-Cuban Economic Relations, 1945–1951’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 46: 4 (2014), 723–53; Thomas J. Heston, ‘Cuba, the United States and the Sugar Act of 1948: The Failure of Economic Coercion’, Diplomatic History, 6: 1 (1982), 1–22.

  13. 13.

    Brimelow, Cuba: Economic and Commercial Conditions.

  14. 14.

    Henry Hohler, ‘Summary of Anglo-Cuban Relations’, 29 April 1943, FO 371/33825(B)/A4008, UKNA.

  15. 15.

    R. Henry Norweb (US ambassador in Cuba) to Secretary of State, 22 March 1946, Foreign Relations of the United States (hereafter FRUS), 1946: Vol. 11, The American Republics, Document 678.

  16. 16.

    Hohler, ‘Summary of Anglo-Cuban Relations’, 29 April 1943, FO 371/33825(B)/A4008, UKNA.

  17. 17.

    Adrian Holman (ambassador in Cuba) to Lord Salisbury (acting foreign secretary), ‘Cuba: Heads of Foreign Missions’, 1 July 1953, FO 533/7/AK1902/1, UKNA.

  18. 18.

    ‘Down to Cripps Rations. Sugar Cut: No Extra Bacon: Fewer Potatoes’, Daily Express, 24 October 1947.

  19. 19.

    Ignacio Klich, ‘Cuba’s Opposition to Jewish Statehood in Palestine, 1944–49: A Critical Review of Varying Interpretations’, Middle East Journal, 51: 3 (1997), 405–17.

  20. 20.

    ‘Department of State Policy Statement’, Washington, 11 January 1951, FRUS, 1950, Vol. 2, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Document 440.

  21. 21.

    Norweb to Secretary of State, 14 January 1946, cited in Lars Schoultz, That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, 38.

  22. 22.

    James Dodds (minister in Havana) to Ernest Bevin (British foreign secretary), 31 January 1948, enclosing ‘Cuba: Annual Report for 1947’, FO 371/67970/AN568, UKNA.

  23. 23.

    Holman to Bevin, 19 January 1951, ‘Cuba Annual Report, 1950’, FO 371/90770/AK1011/1, UKNA.

  24. 24.

    Holman to Bevin, 18 January 1950, enclosing ‘Cuba: Annual Review for 1949’, FO 371/81459/AK1011/1, UKNA.

  25. 25.

    Somerville-Smith (ECGD ) to Stevenson (Treasury), 6 Jan. 1951, FO 371/90793/AK1372/2; Somerville-Smith, Memorandum, ‘Cuba: Leyland Buses’, 8 February 1951, FO 371/90793/AK1372/4; Holman to Herbert Morrison (foreign secretary), 13 April 1951, FO 371/90793/AK1372/6, UKNA.

  26. 26.

    P.S. Stephens (first secretary commercial to Her Majesty’s Embassy at Havana), Cuba: Economic and Commercial Conditions in Cuba, June 1954. London: HMSO, 1954.

  27. 27.

    Dean Acheson (US secretary of state) to the Embassy in the Dominican Republic, Washington DC, 3 April 1951, FRUS 1951: Vol. 2, The United Nations; the Western Hemisphere, Document 763.

  28. 28.

    Stephens, Cuba: Economic and Commercial Conditions.

  29. 29.

    ‘British Seek Share of U.S. Cuban Trade’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 11 August 1951.

  30. 30.

    ‘Black Pact Talks Called’, Daily Express, 12 May 1951.

  31. 31.

    Stephens, Cuba: Economic and Commercial Conditions.

  32. 32.

    Minute by Hoyce, 2 August 1955, FO 371/114232/AK1151/7, UKNA.

  33. 33.

    Holman to Anthony Eden (foreign secretary), 13 March 1952, FO 533/6/AK1015/12, UKNA.

  34. 34.

    Christopher Hull, British Diplomacy and US Hegemony in Cuba, 1898–1964. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2013, 76–97.

  35. 35.

    Robert Cecil, Memorandum on ‘Cuba’, 11 March 1952, FO 371/97516/AK1015/3, UKNA.

  36. 36.

    Holman to Foreign Office, 13 March 1952; Minute by Thompson, 14 March 1952: FO 371/97516/AK1015/7, UKNA.

  37. 37.

    Sir Oliver Franks (Washington DC) to Foreign Office, 13 March 1952, FO 371/97516/AK1015/9, UKNA; Roderick Barclay, ‘Recognition of New Régime in Cuba’, 21 March 1952, FO 371/97516/AK1015/13, UKNA.

  38. 38.

    Willard L. Beaulac, Memorandum of Conversation, 22 March 1952, FRUS, 1952–1954, Vol. 4, The American Republics, Document 326.

  39. 39.

    Holman to Eden, 13 March 1952, FO 533/6/AK1015/12, UKNA.

  40. 40.

    Holman to Eden, 20 March 1952, FO 371/97516/AK1015/18, UKNA.

  41. 41.

    Holman to Eden, 1 April 1954, FO 371/108991/AK1016/1, UKNA.

  42. 42.

    Beaulac to State Department, 14 July 1953, FRUS, 1952–1954, Vol. 4, The American Republics, Document 336.

  43. 43.

    Peter Oliver to Selwyn Lloyd (British foreign secretary), ‘Political Situation in Cuba’, 29 May 1956, FO 533/10/AK1015/21, UKNA.

  44. 44.

    Fordham to Lloyd, 11 December 1956, FO 533/10/AK1015/37, UKNA.

  45. 45.

    Robert Cecil, A Divided Life: A Biography of Donald Maclean. London: Bodley Head, 1988, 116.

  46. 46.

    Schoultz, That Infernal Little Cuban Republic, 44, 580, fn 35.

  47. 47.

    Earl T. Smith (US ambassador in Cuba) to Secretary of State, 13 September 1957, FRUS, 1955–1957: Vol. 6, American Republics: Multilateral; Mexico; Caribbean, Document 294.

  48. 48.

    Anthony Sampson, The Arms Bazaar. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1977, 107–8.

  49. 49.

    Minutes by Doyle and Andrews (11 Nov. 1957), Hildyard (12 Nov. 1957), FO 371/126479/AK1192/3, UKNA.

  50. 50.

    Viscount Hood (minister in the embassy in Washington) to Anthony Rumbold (assistant under-secretary, Western Europe and Latin America), 14 December 1957, FO 371/126479/AK1192/13. UKNA; Minute by Hankey, 18 December 1957, FO 371/126479/AK1192/12, UKNA.

  51. 51.

    Hansard Vol. 597, Parliamentary Debates—House of Commons, 15 December 1958, 763–6.

  52. 52.

    Morris H. Morley, Imperial State and Revolution: The United States and Cuba, 1952–1986. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, 58–61.

  53. 53.

    Thomas G. Paterson, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, 130–2.

  54. 54.

    Caccia to Lloyd, 17 December 1958, FO 371/131844/A1042/2, UKNA.

  55. 55.

    Foreign Office Memorandum, ‘The Supply of Arms to Cuba, 1957–1958’, 15 January 1959, FO 371/139459/AK1192/25, UKNA.

  56. 56.

    Graham Greene to Hugh Delargy, 24 October 1958, Graham Greene Papers 6.17, John J. Burns Library, Boston College, MA, USA.

  57. 57.

    Foreign Office Memorandum ‘The Supply of Arms to Cuba, 1957–1958’, 15 January 1959, FO 371/139459/AK1192/25, UKNA.

  58. 58.

    Ibid.

  59. 59.

    Hansard Vol. 595, Parliamentary Debates—House of Commons, 19 November 1958, 1133–4.

  60. 60.

    Minutes by Norman Brain (assistant under-secretary) and Hankey, 21 November 1958, FO 371/132175/AK1192/40, UKNA. As noted earlier, Cuba was a member of the UN Security Council in 1956–57, at the time of the Suez crisis. Parentheses in the original document.

  61. 61.

    Fordham to Lloyd, ‘Cuba: Annual Review for 1956’ (report written by First Secretary Oliver), 30 January 1957, FO 371/126465/AK1011/1, UKNA.

  62. 62.

    Wilfred Gallienne (British ambassador in Cuba, 1954–56) to Lloyd, ‘Cuba: Review of Events during 1955’, 2 March 1956, FO 371/120115/AK1011/1, UKNA.

  63. 63.

    Hansard Vol. 597, Parliamentary Debates—House of Commons, 15 December 1958, 770–5.

  64. 64.

    Fordham to Hankey, 21 Dec. 1958, FO 371/132176/AK1192/63, UKNA.

  65. 65.

    Christopher Hull, ‘“Going to War in Buses”: The Anglo-American Clash over Leyland Sales to Cuba, 1963–64’, Diplomatic History, 34: 5 (2010), 793–822.

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  1. University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Christopher Hull

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  1. Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Thomas C. Mills

  2. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Rory M. Miller

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Hull, C. (2020). The Limits of Anglo-American Cooperation in Cuba, 1945–1959. In: Mills, T.C., Miller, R.M. (eds) Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony in Twentieth-Century Latin America. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48321-0_10

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