SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 8C

LENGTH: 667 words

HEADLINE: OUR OPINION: Political aims prevent logical policy on Cuba

BYLINE: CYNTHIA TUCKER

SOURCE: AJC

BODY:
It has been a year since 7-year-old Elian Gonzalez went home with his father, leaving behind a nation that suddenly understood the absurdity of our Cold War-era relationship with Cuba. It seemed then that Congress would move quickly to dump the Cuban embargo, a policy as outdated as underground civil defense shelters and classroom atomic bomb drills.

After all, most Americans resented the outrageous theatrics of the fanatical Fidel Castro-haters, who behaved as if Elian were going to be fed to the lions. (Instead, recent TV news footage showed a happy and healthy prospective third-grader.) And the American public is sophisticated enough to detect the duplicity in current policy: If free trade will push Communist China toward democracy, as successive presidents have argued, then surely the same goes for Communist Cuba. But a congressional effort last year to soften the stance against the small Caribbean nation failed --- foundering during a presidential election campaign in which both Democrats and Republicans pandered to Florida's reactionary Cuban exiles. And President Bush's victory has only hardened the line.

The president is deeply indebted to those right-wing Florida voters, who helped him to hold on to a razor-thin --- and much disputed --- margin of victory. So is his brother Jeb, Florida's governor. The governor needs to retain the loyalty of that bloc as he heads into a tough battle for re-election next year.

Those cynical political calculations --- rather than sensible foreign policy considerations --- have pushed the president to consider the nearly unthinkable: making American policy toward Cuba even harsher and more outlandish. This month, President Bush will consider implementing Title III of the notorious Helms-Burton act, which would punish foreign companies who do business with Cuba.

Helms-Burton, the brainchild of North Carolina mossback Jesse Helms, is a patronizing throwback to the days of Manifest Destiny, when American presidents believed they ruled the hemisphere. President Clinton signed it reluctantly in 1996 but exercised his option to waive Title III every six months. If Bush does not waive it this month, it goes into effect.

Title III would be an unmitigated disaster, not for Castro --- who, despite 40 years of American threats, intimidation and assassination attempts remains firmly in charge --- but for the United States. It would drive the final wedge between America and its allies, who are already distressed by the Bush administration's views on missile defense, the ABM treaty and global warming. It would spur those foreign companies --- British, Italian, Spanish and Canadian firms are among those operating in Cuba --- to retaliate, sparking a trade war with Europe. And it would close the door firmly against American businesses hoping to trade with Cuba for at least another decade.

Even Bush is unlikely to go that far. The president will probably settle for trying to scuttle new legislation proposed by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), which would significantly relax the embargo. Unlike last year's effort, which modified sanctions only on paper, Dodd's bill would allow the Cuban government to borrow from American banks to buy U.S. products, allow American companies to freely sell such goods as food and medicine, lift travel restrictions and soften the more pernicious parts of Helms-Burton.

Dodd says he is prepared for Bush's resistance, but he's busy lining up co-sponsors anyway. The senator has at least one advantage: Since Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) deserted the GOP, Helms is out as chairman of Foreign Relations, and Joe Biden (D-Del.) is in. Biden's views on Cuba are closer to Dodd's than Helms'.

Bush lacks the guts to abandon the embargo, but it will eventually collapse of its own illogic. And that provides the best hope that Elian will grow up in a land of economic promise and political freedom.
 
Cynthia Tucker's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. cynthia@ajc.com

LOAD-DATE: July 01, 2001