Page 192 - NS-2 Textbook

MARITIME GEOGRAPHY 187

hosts major naval shipbuilding programs located at plied Soviet goods to Cuba. With the cargo came military
Pascagoula, Mississippi. In addition, there is a naval sup- eqlliplnent and advisers that lnade the Cuban arnled
port activity at New Orleans, Louisiana, and important forces one of the largest and best-equipped military
naval training and development centers at Gulfport, Mis- forces in the Western Hemisphere. Cuban forces sup-
sissippi, and Panama City and Key West, Florida. There ported conummist forces fighting in several African and
is a major naval air base complex at Pensacola, Florida, Central American revolutions throughout the 1970s and
and there is an important U.S. naval base in the Carib- 1980s.
bean at Guantiinamo (Gwan-tii'-na-mo) Bay, Cuba. The United States broke diplomatic ties with Cuba in
Strategic Geography. Certainly the most important 1961 when Cash'o openly embraced commtmism and an-
strategic spot in the Caribbean is the Panama Canal. nounced his alliance with the Soviet Union. A low-key
Splitting the Central American peninsula in the Republic relationship was restuned in 1977, but there have been no
of Panama, the canal is the nlain route for 1110St ocean serious moves to reopen embassies or exchange ambas-
traffic between the Atlantic and Pacific. The Canal Zone sadors since.
was run by the United States for most of the last century, When relations were broken, the United States made
but it was turned over by treaty to Panama in 1999. sure that the treaty granting the United States a naval
The Panama Canal has always been vital to u.s. in- base at Guantanamo Bay, in far southeastern Cuba,
terests. From the naval standpoint, it has been the best stayed in effect. "Gitrno," as naval personnel call it, is the
way to transfer all but the largest ships of the Atlantic Navy's main training base for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. It
and Pacific fleets rapidly back and forth in the event of has a fine harbor and good facilities. Except for an occa-
tension or war. There is no question of its importance as sional hluricane in the fall, the ,veather is excellent InDst
a choke point of international trade. While the canal is of the year for all types of fleet training, including aircraft
probably not as important to U.s. defense as it once was, operations and missile firing. The U.s. Marines maintain
its loss to an enemy power would severely harm U.S. and a force at Gitrno for defense of the base and its facilities.
Western Hemisphere security and economic interests. TI1ere is also a large detention facility staffed by Army
Cuba. Cuba has been a major problem in the Carib- persormel that serves as a holding and interrogation fa-
bean for the United States for the past forty years. Under cility for al-Qaeda, Taliban, and other detainees that have
communist dictator Fidel Castro, Cuba became an ally of come under U.S. control during the war on terrorism.
the former Soviet Union. Cuba has served as a base of Cuba is only about 90 miles from Florida, and it is
operations for revolutionaries throughout the Caribbean directly in the path of the major sea-lanes between the
and Latin America. There is a base to support submarines United States, Central America, northern South America,
at Cienfuegos in southern Cuba. A large munber of gun- and the Panama Canal. This communist presence is a
boats are based in various small ports around the island. constant threat to the peace and security of the Caribbean
A number of interior airfields base fighter squadrons that area, and to the security of the southeastern United
fly modern fighter and attack aircraft. States.
For three decades prior to the demise of the Soviet Following the delnise of the Soviet Union in the early
Union, a constant stream of Soviet ships and aircraft sup- 1990s, all Russian aid to Cuba stopped, throwing it into a

The Panama Canal.