Operation Pedro Pan and the Exodus of Cuba's Children

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Shnookal
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Literacy Campaign ◽  
Unaccompanied Children ◽  
The Family ◽  
Pedro Pan ◽  
War Propaganda ◽  
National Literacy Campaign ◽  
The U.S

This in-depth examination of one of the most controversial episodes in U.S.-Cuba relations sheds new light on the program that airlifted 14,000 unaccompanied children to the United States in the wake of the Cuban Revolution. Operation Pedro Pan is often remembered within the U.S. as an urgent “rescue” mission, but Deborah Shnookal points out that a multitude of complex factors drove the exodus, including Cold War propaganda and the Catholic Church’s opposition to the island’s new government. Shnookal illustrates how and why Cold War scare tactics were so effective in setting the airlift in motion, focusing on their context: the rapid and profound social changes unleashed by the 1959 Revolution, including the mobilization of 100,000 Cuban teenagers in the 1961 national literacy campaign. Other reforms made by the revolutionary government affected women, education, religious schools, and relations within the family and between the races. Shnookal exposes how, in its effort to undermine support for the revolution, the U.S. government manipulated the aspirations and insecurities of more affluent Cubans. She traces the parallel stories of the young “Pedro Pans” separated from their families—in some cases indefinitely—in what is often regarded in Cuba as a mass “kidnapping” and the children who stayed and joined the literacy brigades. These divergent journeys reveal many underlying issues in the historically fraught relationship between the U.S. and Cuba and much about the profound social revolution that took place on the island after 1959.

“The Best Type of Chinese”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeline Y. Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Chinese Overseas ◽  
War Propaganda ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

This chapter looks at the enactment of political agendas under the guise of humanitarian outreach through the operations of the CIA-funded Aid Refugee Chinese Intellectuals, Inc. (ARCI). This ostensibly nongovernmental agency targeted intellectual Chinese for assistance and migration, first to aid the Nationalists on Taiwan and then to the United States in fulfillment of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. Despite the limits of U.S. assistance, the Department of State, through the Office of Refugee and Migration Affairs (ORM) and the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), sought to maximize the impact of such symbolic relief programs. Cold War propaganda proclaimed American friendship and concern for Chinese overseas while reassuring Americans domestically that applicants vetted not only for political views but also for prearranged employment.

The Cold War, Propaganda, and the State–Private Network

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby C. Rider
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychological Warfare ◽  
History Of ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
War Propaganda ◽  
Private Network ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Time And Energy ◽  
The U.S

This chapter traces the reemergence of the U.S. psychological warfare apparatus—particularly propaganda—during the Cold War. Though widely deployed during the Second World War, these methods were initially held back in its aftermath. Nevertheless, the machinery for psychological warfare was designed, built, and refined under the presidency of Harry S. Truman and eagerly molded by his successor, Dwight Eisenhower. That both administrations decided to pour time and energy into propaganda also reveals much about the history of the twentieth century. This chapter maps out the United States' use of propaganda and psychological warfare in the years leading up to and during the Cold War. In addition, it also examines the U.S. government's use of private businesses, groups, and organizations to support U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Deborah Shnookal
Keyword(s):  
Youth Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Peter Pan ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Literacy Campaign ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Literacy ◽  
Pedro Pan ◽  
National Literacy Campaign ◽  
First Time

The story of Operation Pedro Pan (or Operation Peter Pan) and the Cuban Children’s Program remains a highly contested one, still regarded in Miami as an urgent humanitarian “rescue” mission while in Havana it is viewed as a scheme that hoodwinked parents into sending their offspring out of the country as unaccompanied minors and sometimes even described as a mass kidnapping. This book moves beyond Cold War tropes about threats to the Cuban family by the revolutionary government and uses the episode to examine in detail the social reforms that unfolded in the wake of the 1959 Cuban Revolution and how these changes encouraged a new revolutionary youth culture of political activism and challenged the United States’ historical, political, and economic control and cultural influence in Cuba. By focusing on the generation of young Cubans who came to maturity in the early 1960s and tracking the parallel trajectories of the Pedro Pan children and their siblings, friends, and classmates who stayed on the island (100,000 of whom participated in the 1961 national literacy campaign), this book for the first time takes a broader view and presents a more nuanced explanation of this history.

The Patria Potestad Hoax

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-126
Author(s):  
Deborah Shnookal
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The State ◽  
Parental Authority ◽  
Catholic Clergy ◽  
News Broadcasts ◽  
Psychological Warfare ◽  
The Family ◽  
Pedro Pan ◽  
War Propaganda ◽  
The Impact

This chapter reviews the impact in Cuba of Cold War propaganda about the family and communism. It investigates the origins of the rumor campaign maintaining that the Cuban revolutionary government planned to eliminate patria potestad (parental authority) and make all Cuban children wards of the state. The rumors were backed up by the printing and circulation of a fake law by the anti-Castro movement. The author examines how this hoax was also spread through sensational news broadcasts on the CIA’s Radio Swan and through other psychological warfare (or psywar) propaganda, along with pronouncements by Catholic clergy, and considers why this fearmongering was so effective in convincing many Cuban parents to send their children out of the country with Operation Pedro Pan.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 213-222
Author(s):  
Deborah Shnookal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Family Reunification ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Action Program ◽  
Unaccompanied Minors ◽  
Covert Action ◽  
Pedro Pan ◽  
The U.S

This book concludes that by the time the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October 1962, Operation Pedro Pan had largely served its purpose in the U.S. covert action program and propaganda war against the Cuban revolution. The cancellation of direct flights between the United States and Cuba and Washington’s policy to keep Cuba isolated meant that the children’s reunification with their families was made very difficult and delayed. While Cuban parents may have had many motives in sending their children as unaccompanied minors to Miami, the author argues that, in general, U.S. government political objectives overrode humanitarian concerns for the children’s welfare and Cuban family reunification. She concludes that Operation Pedro Pan was largely unjustified and based on a fabricated Cold War scare about patria potestad that manipulated Cuban parents’ fears and resulted in the unnecessary separation of thousands of Cuban children from their families—in many cases for several years and, in some cases, with tragic consequences.

scholarly journals Current Nuclear Strategies and Arsenals of the United States of America and the Russian Federation

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-44
Author(s):  
Adam Potočňák
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Nuclear Forces ◽  
Nuclear Strategy ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

The article holistically analyses current strategies for the use and development of nuclear forces of the USA and Russia and analytically reflects their mutual doctrinal interactions. It deals with the conditions under which the U.S. and Russia may opt for using their nuclear weapons and reflects also related issues of modernization and development of their actual nuclear forces. The author argues that both superpowers did not manage to abandon the Cold War logic or avoid erroneous, distorted or exaggerated assumptions about the intentions of the other side. The text concludes with a summary of possible changes and adaptations of the American nuclear strategy under the Biden administration as part of the assumed strategy update expected for 2022.

scholarly journals The Trumpet of the Swan

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-186
Author(s):  
Karen Ann Donnachie ◽  
Andy Simionato
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cold War ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Autonomous Robot ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Twitter Account ◽  
War Propaganda ◽  
Natural Media

This paper will outline the ideation, background and development of the electronic artwork The Trumpet of the Swan (Donnachie & Simionato, 2017) presented by the authors at the Electronic Literature Organisation conference in Porto, Portugal in 2017. The artwork is a custom-coded drawing-robot which automatically inscribes in natural media, every post published from the personal Twitter profile of the 45th President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, identified on Twitter as @realDonaldTrump. The machine, which has the appearance reminiscent of a swan, including a broad “body” balanced on two short legs that end in webbed “feet”, is a semi-autonomous robot that writes in a pen, crowned by a long white plume, on a continuous scroll of paper while producing bird-like sounds. The drawing-robot remains permanently in a state of attention and the demonstrated sequence of actions can only be triggered remotely and by the 45th President of the U.S.A. himself (or more precisely, by whomever publishes a new tweet through his Twitter account ‘@realDonaldTrump’). In other words, to borrow a popular phrase taken from twentieth century cold-war propaganda: only the President has the ability to “launch” this artwork which otherwise remains dormant, in waiting.

scholarly journals The Role of the United States and The “Asian Solution” Approach in the Malaysia-Indonesia Confrontation (1963-1966)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohani Hj Ab Ghani ◽  
Zulhilmi Paidi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Solution Approach ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
The U.S

The Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation between 1963-1966 was an important event attracting the attention of politicians and scholars alike as the conflict had threatened the long existing relations between the two countries. Indonesian confrontation with Malaysia was due to its refusal to accept the formation of the new federation of Malaysia, founded on 16th September 1963. Sukarno’s confrontational stand on this had broken the long-standing sentiments of regional brotherhood or “saudara serumpun” that had nurtured between the two countries for many years. The conflict also saw the involvement of major powers like the United States (U.S.), Britain, China and Russia in the midst of bipolar power struggle between the communist and the anti-communist as part of the ongoing Cold War. The three years of confrontation witnessed great attempts at peace efforts by U.S. Although U.S. involvement in the conflict was merely as a moderator for both countries it was also fueled by its efforts of containment of communism in the Southeast Asian region. The U.S. viewed that the conflict should be resolved in the context of “Asian solution” as it involved two Asian countries A settlement to the Malaysia-Indonesia confrontation was finally achieved through the Bangkok Agreement, signed in August 1966. This paper discusses the role of U.S. in its attempts at finding an amicable settle to the confrontation in the form of “Asian solution.”  

Youth Negotiate Deportation

2019 ◽  
pp. 135-146
Author(s):  
Lauren Heidbrink
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Young People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Institutional Practices ◽  
Unaccompanied Children ◽  
Forced Return ◽  
The U.S

This chapter chronicles how young people experience deportation from the United States to Guatemala. It examines the policies and institutional practices that govern the removal of unaccompanied children and trace the ways in which young people and their families understand and navigate these policies and practices. Through multi-sited ethnographic research in the United States and Guatemala, the chapter reveals the various impacts of the forced “repatriation” of children, exacerbating the very conditions that spurred their migration and causing new interrelated uncertainties and related risks as “deportees.” As they are physically expelled from the United States, deported young people move out of U.S. legal systems. The effects of a forced “return” to their nations of origin produce new challenges such as feelings of isolation and vulnerability as well as danger, such that, in many ways, they continue to be in and moving through regimes of illegality. Demonstrating the long-term and geographically distant effects of the U.S. government’s deportation of children and youth, the chapter outlines the confining character of being out of a system, especially if once in it.

The Fall and Revival of Coercive Diplomacy: Security Partnerships and Sino-American Security Relations, 1972–2009

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Christensen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Coercive Diplomacy ◽  
Security Treaty ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
The Taiwan Strait ◽  
The U.S

This chapter examines how, in the post-Cold War era, the United States' alignment with Taiwan and alliance with Japan again have figured prominently among issues affecting U.S.-China security relations. While they are far from being allies, the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are not enemies either, but rather major economic partners who have also cooperated to some degree in addressing an increasing range of international problems. But there are still security tensions between the two sides over issues such as relations across the Taiwan Strait, and both nations practice coercive diplomacy toward the other, sometimes tacitly, sometimes less so. The chapter considers how the legacies of these Cold War alliances—particularly the U.S.–Taiwan relationship and the U.S.–Japan security treaty—have affected U.S.–China relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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