American Magazine: August 2014

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF ANDREW ST. GEORGE PAPERS, MANUSCRIPTS AND ARCHIVES, YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY; DOCUMENT: COURTESY OF CARTER LIBRARY
For two countries that officially
share no diplomatic relations, the
U.S. and Cuba sure like talking to
each other.
In the forthcoming book, Back
Channel to Cuba: The Hidden
History of Negotiations between
Washington and Havana, School of
Public Affairs professor William
LeoGrande and his co-author,
Peter Kornbluh, unveil the
successes and failures of these
often secretive meetings, and
suggest 10 lessons for Americans
who will consider how to engage
with Cuba in the future.
The authors visited Cuba about
a dozen times over the course
of the 10 years they spent on the
project. They combed through
declassified
documents,
obtained
others
through
Freedom
of Information requests, and
interviewed dozens of key players
involved in the talks, including
Fidel Castro, former president
Jimmy Carter, and his national
security advisor, Zbigniew
Brzezinski.
“One of the things that makes
this book unique is that we have
accounts of these negotiations
from the people who sat across
the table from one another,”
LeoGrande says. “Not surprisingly,
they sometimes saw
U.S. Ambassador Philip W. Bonsal met Fidel Castro for the first time in 1959
outside Havana. Top: A 1977 presidential directive signed by Jimmy Carter
instructs the U.S. to work toward normalization with Cuba.
what was happening
very differently.”
Every presidential
administration since
Eisenhower has held
some form of talks with
Cuba. In 1978, when
U.S.-Cuban relations
were strained because
of Cuba’s involvement
in conflicts in Angola
and Ethiopia, a series
of secret negotiations known to
only a handful of people in the
U.S. government were held in
Washington, New York, Atlanta,
Mexico, and Havana. The Reagan
administration dealt with the
Cubans on migration, as did the
Clinton administration in 1995.
Those talks were so secretive that
not even the State Department
officials responsible for Cuba
knew about them.
Among the results of those
negotiations was a provision
calling for official talks between
the two countries twice a year.
Both nations now use them to
discuss migration and other issues.
“The two sides have to listen
carefully to one another, because
sometimes they talk in code and
it’s easy for them to misunderstand
each other,” LeoGrande says.
“What the Cubans want more
than anything is to be treated with
respect, as a coequal sovereign
country. That’s one of the hardest
things for the United States to do,
because we’re so much bigger,
we’re so much more powerful,
and they’ve defied us for so long.”
What happens to college graduates
after they leave campus? What
is the value of their college degree?
Is it worth the investment?
Thanks to its graduate census
data, American University is
uniquely positioned to know.
In September a new website
(american.edu/knowsuccess) will
enable anyone to discover where
AU graduates are working and
their salary range. No other
school of AU’s size (or larger) is
accumulating data in such a manner.
An impressive 81 percent
of graduates from the Class of
2012 responded to the survey,
which showed that nine out of 10
undergrads were employed, enrolled
in graduate school, or both within
six months of graduation. Ninetytwo
percent of new undergrads work
in a position related to their degree
or career objective. About half work
for private companies, and more
than a quarter work for nonprofits.
Eighty-seven percent of master’s
graduates were working within six
months of earning their diploma,
and almost half of those secured
jobs prior to graduating.
Furthermore, AU is drilling
down to degree level, so visitors
to the site can see where graduates
are working, in what capacity, how
much they make, or where they’re
going to grad school. The site
also will feature videos and stories
about graduates and their paths
to success.
DIVE INTO THE THINK TANK
Jennifer Lawless, director of SPA’s Women
and Politics Institute, has joined more
than 300 policy experts at the Brookings
Institution. The Governance Studies fellow
will examine gender and youth issues.
MADE IN THE USA
The Ford F-Series pickup and the Chevrolet
Corvette take the checkered flag in Kogod’s 2014 Made in America
Auto Index (scoring 87.5 out of 100). Professor Frank DuBois maintains the
index, which considers production factors overlooked by other indices.
The Buick Enclave, Chevy Traverse, and GMC Acadia round out the top five.
BUSY BODIES, SHARP MINDS
As physical education minutes increase, so do test scores.
Stacey Snelling led a CAS team analyzing the impact of D.C.’s
Healthy Schools Act, enacted in 2010 to reduce obesity. They
found kids who got more physical activity performed better
on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System.
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