Combat· Banana Wars
Cuba Operations
The grouping of the Marine interventions in Cuba across a quarter-century.
The category spans the famous landing at Guantánamo Bay in 1898 during the war with Spain, the first occupation that followed to 1902, the second occupation and pacification of 1906–09 when the young republic faltered, the suppression of unrest in the east in 1912, and the long Sugar Intervention of 1917–22 guarding the eastern sugar districts. Through these recurring deployments the Marines were, in effect, the instrument of the American right under the Platt Amendment to step into Cuba whenever order broke down. The most lasting result was Guantánamo Bay, taken as a coaling and naval station in 1898 and held under lease from 1903, which became and remains a permanent American base. Cuba was the nearest and most frequently revisited of the Caribbean interventions, a recurring obligation rather than a single campaign.
Engagements in this conflict (1) Podcast episodes on Banana Wars
Record no. 493