【Tamkang Times】In recent news, America and Cuba have broken through the ice of the cold war that has frozen their relationship for more than half a century. The Graduate Institute of the Americas held a forum on December 24th, to discuss this tremendous breakthrough. The forum was lead by professors of the Graduate Institute of the Americas, Hsiao-chuan Chen and I-hsin Chen. These two experts of the relationship between Cuba and America, analyzed what this new breakthrough means and what it could lead to in the near future.

Cuba’s relationship with America turned sour over 50 years ago, due to the communist revolution lead by Fidel Castro. On January 1, 1959, Castro's revolutionary forces overthrew the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. U.S. officials were wary about the Cuban revolutionary because of his anti-American rhetoric, his stated plans to nationalize foreign properties in Cuba, and his association with a number of suspected leftists. Castro was invited for an interview in America in April of 1959, which only fueled the tension between the two countries, leading into a long cold war.

I-hsin Chen explained during the forum, “The icy relationship began to thaw during President Obama’s first term as he attempted to extend his hand to form a new relationship. Because of the long unfriendly relationship between the two countries, it will be a slow healing process. However President Obama’s second term has brought even more progress between the two countries.” Even though the forum was only an hour long, the analysis let students and teachers have a much deeper understanding of the recent change.