Embargo on CubaThe United States imposed an embargo on Cuba on October 19, 1960. Is it time for the United States to lift the fifty-year embargo? The embargo on Cuba was part of America's Cold War strategy against the Soviet Union, imposed on the basis that Cuba posed a threat to the national security of the United States due to its alliance with the Soviet Union. Although Cuba would like the United States to end the embargo against their country, the United States wants Cuba to make their situation a better living environment and promote human rights for its citizens. The Cuban embargo, also known as “el bloqueo” to Cuban citizens, was declared by the United States in 1960 to eliminate imports of Cuban goods. At first the embargo was imposed only to eliminate food and medicine, but then on February 7, 1962 the embargo was extended to all exports. President Kennedy announced the embargo citing “the subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet communism with which the Cuban government publicly aligns itself” (Galeano). “We have a hemispheric commitment to freedom, democracy and respect for human rights,” said Jose Cardenas, a former National Security Council staffer in Cuba. With just 90 miles of sea between the United States and Cuba, l The embargo suffocates the island's main commercial and tourist partner. By the early 1960s the United States had severed ties with Cuba and pledged to overthrow the Castro regime. In 1961 the Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed CIA attempt to crush the government, inflaming Jones2Cuban distrust and nationalism, led to secret agreements allowing the Soviet Union to build a missile base on the island. The United States found that these plans triggered a fourteen-day standoff. US shi...... middle of sheet .......d., n. pag..William J. Clinton"Remarks on the Signing of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996," March 12, 1996. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=52531 Frank, Merc. nd, n. pag..Galeano, Javier. ""No Cigar: the economic embargo on Cuba turns 50"."USA Today News 02 07 2012, n. page http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-07/cuba-us-embargo/53000402/1>. Lindsay, James. nd, n. pag..Sullivan, Mark. Congressional Research Service, October. 0..