What's real reason Obama visited Cuba, met privately with Castro?

Back in the early 1960s, Cuba housed missiles pointed at the USA. I know because I was an airman in the USAF stationed in Germany at a radar site which controlled the entire European theater.

When the Cuban missile crisis broke, we were put on base alert until President Kennedy forced Russia to remove those missiles. Our German USAF Base sat approximately the same distance from the Russian missiles in East Germany as the distance Cuba is to the United States.

I went from a 19-year-old kid to a man within an hour. Our enemies have missiles pointed at our radar sites even today, but they are hundreds of miles away. Take out our radar, you ground our planes.

I realize that Fidel Castro is no longer in control of Cuba, but his blood brother is. Opening a Pandora's Box in Cuba and closing Guantanamo Bay is asking for trouble. Getting friendly with the enemy is not always in the best interest of American citizens.

Undoubtedly, there are some real nice people in Cuba, but there are also many people who would like to blow our heads off. The nice people are still living under a communist regime in Cuba.

What is the real reason our president visited Cuba and met privately with Raul Castro?

Think about this. Trust is a big word when you're dealing with the enemy. We wouldn't have this headache if our country had run Castro out of Cuba back in the '60s. I believe that would have made thousands of Cubans very happy. Just ask them.

Sam Black

Bradenton

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "What's real reason Obama visited Cuba, met privately with Castro? ."