The Day After in Cuba: What American Military Force Can and Cannot Do

[Excerpt from essay by Ricardo Zuniga, retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer who served on the National Security Council as President Barack Obama’s adviser for the Americas from 2012 to 2015 and participated in Obama’s diplomatic opening to Cuba.] On the beaches east of Havana, you can still see rusted remnants of watchtowers on the roofs of buildings along the island’s northern coast. Constructed in the early 1960s, after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, these emplacements were designed to prov