Rafael M. Hernández, Kennedy Visiting Professor in Latin American Studies, postulates on missed possibilities for diplomacy to Cuba.

The Kennedy administration should have capitalized on three secret diplomatic encounters with Cuban officials in the 1960s, which might have sidestepped the “dead-end” policy of embargo, esteemed Cuban historian Rafael M. Hernández argued last night during a presentation at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

The Kennedy visiting professor told a crowd of about 40 scholars and students that the three covert meetings could have matured into a more fruitful diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

“The embargo became central in U.S. policy towards Cuba,” said Hernández, a faculty member at the University of Havana. “Its dense web of regulations, prohibitions, and exclusions narrowed the legal space to experiment with an alternative policy and tightened the hands of future decision-makers willing to ‘carrot’ [Cuban dictator] Fidel Castro, instead of just ‘stick’ him.”

After three instances of covert diplomatic contact in the early 1960s—the first with Cuban official Ernesto “Che” Guevara to discuss Castro’s agenda; the second, a meeting concerning prisoner exchange; the third, a series of talks which dissolved after squabbles—the White House under John F. Kennedy ’40 chose not to build on these successes, Hernández said.

And Kennedy simultaneously employed confrontational strategies with this low-key engagement, he added, poisoning the diplomatic climate.

Modern-day restrictions—a possible consequence of this uncooperative climate—nearly kept Hernández from making it to Harvard in the first place. The status of his visa was mired in legal limbo up until shopping period, so much so that Hernández stepped off his plane and right into his first class.

During the speech, Hernández speculated how Kennedy—had he lived and won a second term—would have dealt with Cuba.

“He might have accepted the Cuban revolution as a fact of life, since Cuba was certainly not a Soviet satellite,” Hernández said.

He told The Crimson that the present generation can learn from these mistakes by recognizing the necessity of greater cooperation between the communist island and its neighbor to the north.

“The academic exchange between America and Cuba today is one of the fundamental channels of communication between the two sides,” Hernández said.

“We hope that through these kinds of appointments—like the Robert F. Kennedy visting professorship—that we can build a deeper and deeper relationship with the region, in particular countries like Cuba,” said Merilee S. Grindle, director of the Rockefeller Center.