Read Part 1 and Part 2

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If you were to ask any 21st-century American about Cuba, most of the stories that would come to mind would be those of the Missile Crisis, the world on the brink of nuclear collapse, and the repression of freedoms against the island’s inhabitants by a socialist tyranny. And they are right.

But the rich connections between the island and the United States are not limited to the last 70 tumultuous years. There is a whole current of prior ties, in which solidarity and alliance between regional neighbors prevailed.

We discussed these with Cuban-American historian Octavio de la Suarée, who for years was a professor and head of the Department of Language, Literature, and Culture at William Paterson University in New Jersey, and who presides over the Cuban Academy of History in Exile. Here is part of that long conversation on the 250th anniversary of the United States.

The Treaty of Paris concluded the Spanish-American War and was signed on December 10, 1898. What was its main consequence, and how did it shape the United States that we know today?

With the Treaty of Paris, the Kingdom of Spain relinquished all its rights over Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippine Islands to the United States.

The Spanish-American War was a pivotal moment in the history of the two antagonists. Spain’s decisive defeat shifted the country’s focus from its foreign colonial ventures to an inward look at its domestic needs, a process that led to a cultural and literary renaissance and two consecutive decades of much-needed economic development in Spain.

The victorious Americans, for their part, emerged from the war as a global power with distant foreign possessions and a new participation in international politics that would lead them to play a decisive role in the affairs of Europe and the rest of the world.

During the republic, Cuba became a close ally of the United States in terms of military action. In what ways was this most evident between 1902 and 1958?

The Republic of Cuba was an unconditional ally of the United States from its founding until its dissolution in 1962, with the so-called Declaration of Havana, and the subsequent establishment of the first country with a socialist system in the Western world.

The role that the democratic and sovereign republic of Cuba (today it is neither of those two) played in the First World War was small, but symbolically very important for the hemisphere. First, Cuba declared war on Germany on April 7, 1917, the same day as the United States, reflecting the close political and economic ties between the two countries.

The republic did not send combat troops to Europe, as its participation was primarily naval and defensive, focused on protecting trade routes in the Caribbean Sea by escorting and monitoring the safety of merchant ships.

It is important to remember that Cuba was a significant sugar producer, a critical commodity in wartime, and its sugar exports helped sustain the Allied war effort, especially in the United States and Great Britain. Likewise, Cuban ports and their infrastructure were very useful for Allied logistics and their continuous supply in the Caribbean.

The support Cuba provided to the Allies strengthened its relationship with the United States and its position in the postwar international order. In summary, Cuba was not a military power on the battlefield of World War I, but it played a leading role as a regional security partner, an economic supplier, and a symbol of Pan-American support for the Allies.

Like the United States, Cuba was a founding member of the League of Nations after the war.

During World War II, did Cuba play a similar role alongside the United States?

Yes. Cuba declared war on the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) on December 9, 1941, immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was one of the first Latin American countries to do so and was a staunch ally of the United States throughout the war.

One of its most important contributions was that its Navy and Air Force helped patrol the maritime routes around the island, preventing German U-boats from attacking Allied ships with impunity. In May 1943, a Cuban Navy patrol boat (CS-13), in cooperation with U.S. intelligence, helped sink a German U-176 submarine near the island.

This is one of the confirmed Axis losses caused by the actions of a Cuban patrol boat. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Cubans and Cuban Americans volunteered or already lived in the United States and served in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. They fought throughout Europe, in North Africa, and in the Pacific, like any other American recruit.

Cuban sailors served on Allied merchant ships, which was extremely dangerous work. Several Cuban merchant ships were sunk by German submarines, with loss of life. Protecting sugar shipments, critical to the Allied wartime economy, was a major concern.

Beyond individual soldiers, Cuba was a key base for Allied operations in the Caribbean. Its ports, airports, and radar installations helped secure shipping routes. Cuban sugar production was of vital importance to the war effort.

Apart from the actions of the Cuban Navy patrol boat CS-13, in this U.S.-led alliance against the Axis powers in World War II, did Cuba contribute to other military strikes?

Unlike other countries, Cuba does not have many world-famous heroes of World War II, but Cuban military personnel have earned U.S. military decorations. Some even went on to become important figures later in politics and the armed forces.

One of them was a Cuban Navy officer named Mario Ramírez Delgado, and he was the commander of a CS-13 submarine chaser.

In May 1943, his ship helped locate and sink a German U-boat, U-176, off the northern coast of Cuba, thus becoming one of the few Cuban submarine destroyers for whom there is both a documented and confirmed record of such an action. He became an overnight national military hero.

This action was most likely the best-documented combat action involving a Cuban officer.

Another was Carlos J. Finlay, III, Cuban by birth and an officer in the Cuban Army. He was the grandson of Carlos J. Finlay, the Cuban scientist who discovered how yellow fever spread. He is a prime example of a well-to-do Cuban family that directly contributed to the Allied effort during the war.

Desi Arnaz was not a war hero in the traditional sense of the phrase, but he was a well-documented Cuban military man. He was an actor and musician and served in the United States during World War II producing training films for the troops. He wasn’t a front-line soldier, but he was part of the war machine.

Although many names have been lost to history, it is known that hundreds of Cubans and Cuban-Americans served in the Army, Navy, and Air Force of the United States. Some flew bombing missions over Europe, others fought in North Africa, Italy, and the Pacific War, and several received military decorations from the United States.

And beyond fighting in the two World Wars, were there any other times when Cuban military personnel participated in battle alongside U.S. troops?

There were. A group of Cubans served in the Korean Peninsula War in the 1950s as members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Some of them were immigrants or Cuban-Americans who enlisted in the Army, Navy, or Air Force.

They fought as part of the United Nations forces under U.S. command. Some trained Cuban pilots flew with U.S. forces. Other Cubans also served as medics or in logistics with the United Nations forces.