U.S. policy toward Cuba

Ironically, just after meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, President Bush made a public statement about U.S. policy toward Cuba, saying, "I have taken the position that trade with the country enables a tyrant to stay in power." It's an echo of the old argument made by Jeane Kirkpatrick that greatly influenced the Reagan administration, namely that there are good (authoritarian) dictatorships and bad (totalitarian) dictatorships, and we should stop moaning about human rights abuses when the government is favorable to us.