Barry Clemons’ letter criticizing Sarah van Gelder’s Jan. 2 column is fraught with presumptions, the worst being his disdain for Mr. Obama’s normalization of relations with Cuba (“A counterpoint to column by van Gelder,” page A4, Jan. 9 Herald).

In his speech announcing the policy change, the president acknowledged that the Castro regime’s record on human rights and political freedoms is abysmal. (But no less so than the right-wing dictatorship they overthrew.)

However, the president also noted the obvious truth that a half-century of embargo and isolation of Cuba had failed to effect any real change on the island, hence the time has long passed to chart a new course.

Why do we need to a new course? One reason is chronology and human life spans: Fidel Castro is 88 and Raul Castro is 83, both will be gone in the not-too-distant future. The question begs, “Then what?” If we wish to influence Cuba’s power transition toward a peaceful, positive and democratic course, then we must start having dialogue with the Cuban people now, not at the moment of catastrophic crisis.

What have past presidents done in relations with other Cold War foes? Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger traveled to Red China in 1972 when China was a dangerous and implacable foe with hegemonic designs on Asia and supplying arms and training to a nation in a shooting war with the U.S. In the ensuing four decades, though still ruled by an autocratic regime, the Chinese have become far more economic competitors than they are military foes. Both we and the nations of Asia are too valuable to them as markets to engage in warfare. Additionally, as the Chinese embraced a capitalist economy, more than 600 million of their people rose out of the depths of poverty.

In spring 1988, President Reagan visited the Soviet Union, initiating a great thaw in the Cold War and the opening of that nation as well as its satellite states in eastern Europe to the cultural and political influences of western democratic ideals and capitalism. Within half a decade, there was no Soviet Union nor any communist state to be found in Europe.

The historical record shows if our aim is to advance the cause of freedom in Cuba, the president is treading a well-marked path.

Tom Debor
Poulsbo