The Cuban Embargo examines the changing politics of U.S. policy toward Cuba over the more than four decades since the revolution, from the powerful Cuban American National Foundation and the Reagan administration to the Helms-Burton Act and recent strictures by the Bush administration. While the U.S. embargo policy itself has remained relatively stable since its origins during the heart of the Cold War, the dynamics that produce and govern that policy have changed dramatically. Although originally dominated by the executive branch, the president's tight grip over policy has gradually ceded to the influence of interest groups, members of Congress, and specific electoral campaigns and goals. Patrick Haney and Walt Vanderbush provide fresh analysis of the domestic politics that have shaped the foreign policy responsible for the longest trade embargo in modern times.

1. Introduction : the changing politics of the Cuban embargo
2. The making of an embargo : U.S.-Cuban relations, 1959-1980
3. The Reagan administration and the Cuban American National Foundation
4. The Reagan administration, Cuba, and the Cold War
5. The rise of Congress and the fall of the Cold War : the George H. W. Bush administration
6. The road to Helms-Burton : the first Clinton administration
7. The president strikes back
8. George W. Bush and the struggle for control
9. Conclusion