12/08/97- Updated 09:53
AM ET
USA TODAY
Nearly 100 years ago, the harbor at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, became the first U.S. military base overseas. In the 1960s, it turned into an enduring symbol of the Cold War.
Now, in what might be the final chapter of the base's history, Guantanamo is becoming the test case for President Clinton's policy of halting the use of anti-personnel land mines outside of Korea.
In less than two years, the minefields that have protected Guantanamo from Fidel Castro's troops, and deterred Cuban refugees, will be gone. The next step will be up to Cuba.
If Castro's regime collapses and chaos ensues, as some experts predict, the trickle of refugees trying to make it to U.S. territory could turn into a flood.
That risk was a key factor in deciding to get rid of Guantanamo's mines.
If a thousand people charged the fences separating Cuba from the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo, "how would you channel them to safety?" asks Bob Cowles, a Pentagon official in charge of removing the mines. "Clearly, the humanitarian dimension was a major part of the president's decision."
Retired Marine general John Sheehan, who last year issued the orders to get the mines out of Guantanamo, says the decision also was meant as a signal to Castro.
"How do you demonstrate to the Cubans that it's a different world?" says Sheehan, the former U.S. Atlantic commander. "Taking away the minefield is one of them."
But, so far, Cuba, which has its own minefields on the other side of the 17.5-mile fence that separates the base from Cuban territory, has not matched the American move.
Castro's elite Frontier Brigade remains dug into the hills surrounding the base, but it shows no hostile intent.
Uncashed rent checks
With its azure seas, pristine beaches, rare wildlife and dry climate, Guantanamo Bay would make an ideal resort. Courtesy of the military, it already has two air strips, superior docks and many modern buildings.
Strategically located on the far southeastern tip of Cuba, Guantanamo has been a Caribbean haven for U.S. forces since Navy warships sailed into its splendid harbor during the Spanish-American War in 1898. In 1903, the United States permanently leased it from Cuba. The treaty was revised in 1934 and rent set at $2,000 in gold.
The Treasury still sends Castro an annual rent check, which now comes to about $4,050. The Cuban leader hasn't cashed one since his first year in power in 1959. He calls Guantanamo base "a dagger plunged into Cuban soil" and declared the lease invalid. But the treaty says the lease can be terminated only by mutual consent.
The Cold War came to Cuba after Castro won his revolution, launched from the mountains just outside Guantanamo. He allied with the Soviet Union and relations with the United States soured. The minefields were laid after the United States and the Soviet Union squared off in 1962 over the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba.
Castro then shut the aqueduct that provided water to the base. Guantanamo suddenly was, and has remained, an isolated outpost dependent on a desalinization plant and a steady stream of barges.
For three more decades, Guantanamo was a major training center for the Atlantic fleet. But with recent military downsizing, the base is mostly a wayside on the Windward Passage where ships stop for fuel or repairs.
In this decade, it has served as a camp for Haitian and Cuban refugees, but the last camp closed last year.
American casualties
To protect the base once the land mines are removed, the military has sophisticated motion and noise sensors that could detect penetration of the base by Cuban troops. The Marines also have access to short-lived "smart" mines if the Frontier Brigade makes a charge. And a small number of anti-tank mines, little threat to civilians, remain in the ground, Cowles says. "The base is just as secure as it was."
Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the U.S. military has been preparing for similar upheaval inside Cuba, with accompanying mass flows of refugees. But so far that has not occurred.
Some three dozen Cubans a month find their way onto the Guantanamo base. Most swim, but some try to cross the minefields. Of those, few make it as far as the American side.
Ironically, more Americans than Cubans have been casualties of the U.S. minefield, according to official records. The Marines have lost 13 over the past 35 years, members of crews who did regular replacement of old mines. It's a job so dangerous the troops have their Social Security numbers tattooed in their armpits for posthumous identification. Five sailors died in 1964 when they accidentally wandered into a mine area.
The records say only five Cuban asylum seekers have been killed on the U.S. side.
For many years, the Cubans who survived the crossing were interrogated and then routinely admitted to the United States. Now, though, they're usually handed back to Cuba in hopes of discouraging more. Relations are cordial with the local Cuban commanders the Americans meet at the Northwest Gate.
But all those factors considered, the mine removal at Guantanamo might be misguided, says Frank Gaffney, a Pentagon official during the Reagan administration.
"How bad an idea it is depends on how sanguine one is about Fidel and what may yet emerge from his presumably terminal time in power," he says. "My own feeling is, as in North Korea, it's a good idea to retain as many impediments (as possible) to incursions against our forces."
In the long run, the desired scenario is to give Guantanamo back to Cuba as a goodwill gesture toward a new, democratic government.
In unspoken anticipation of that, the U.S. Navy has reduced its operations at Guantanamo to the quietest level in decades.
"Maybe the end is nigh," says Gaffney, acknowledging that political pressure to give up the valuable base would be immense after Castro. "The bad news is, it may not come about quietly."
By Steven Komarow, USA TODAY
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