HOME / explainer: Answers to your questions about the news.

How Did the U.S. Get a Naval Base in Cuba?

By Chris SuellentropPosted Friday, Jan. 18, 2002, at 5:25 PM ET

What's the deal with the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba? How did the U.S. get a military base in a hostile, Communist country?

RSS

The United States seized Guantanamo Bay and established a naval base there in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Five years later, the U.S. and Cuba signed a lease giving Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. as a "coaling and Naval station." The lease was required to implement the congressional Platt Amendment, which stipulated, among other things, that a naval base "at certain specified points to be agreed upon by the President of the United States" was required "to enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba."

In 1934, Cuba and the U.S. signed a treaty that gave the U.S. a perpetual lease to the area. The U.S. can't open a casino resort there, however: Private enterprise is banned under the terms of the treaty. The lease can be broken only by mutual agreement, so as a practical matter, Guantanamo Bay is U.S. property. It was there before Castro and will be there after him.

Next question?

Explainer thanks the official Web site for the U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

E-MAIL

RECOMMEND... Get Slate RSS Feeds

Chris Suellentrop reviews games for Slate.

COMMENTS

Reader Comments From The Fray:

It strikes me [as] funny that Castro would screw American business owners and the mafia, but not the American Military, by seizing their property. Nice to know he thought so much of their prowess and resolve, but I wonder... why wouldn't the U.S. use the same implied threat that helped us keep Guantanomo to keep American property in Cuba? Were we too PC even in the fifties?

--Someone Else

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

(1/21)

What did you think of this article?

Join The Fray: Our Reader Discussion Forum

POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES