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Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
Sun May 17, 2015, 05:05 PM May 2015

Our man in Havana (back in ’59)

Our man in Havana (back in ’59)
Emilio Paz • May 16, 2015



Many Americans may already be wondering who will be nominated as U.S. ambassador to Cuba once formal relations are reestablished between the two countries.

Will it be a career diplomat with experience in Latin America or some wealthy industrialist (preferably Spanish-speaking) who contributed munificently to political party coffers? Will it be a Mr. Ambassador or a Madame Ambassador?

What will be the criteria for the selection? And are names being vetted now or is there already a short list?

For those few Americans who wonder who was the United States’ envoy to Havana in 1959, when Fulgencio Batista fled the island and Fidel Castro took over, the answer is Earl Edward Tailer Smith, an investment broker and sportsman with no previous diplomatic background who was appointed ambassador to Cuba by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was confirmed by the Senate in May 1957 at the age of 54.



The fact that he was on the board of directors of the United States Sugar Corporation may have had a bearing on his appointment, since the company had a major presence in sugar-producing Cuba at the time.

More:
http://progresoweekly.us/our-man-in-havana-back-in-59/

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