The American Red Cross from Clara Barton to the New Deal

5. Cuba and Controversy

c h a p t e r f i v e Cuba and Controversy in cuba, American humanitarianism danced its first waltz with American expansionism . The dance began when clara Barton and others decided to aid starving cuban peasants who had been driven from their land by civil war. Although the American red cross strived to remain neutral, it and other humanitarian groups working in cuba “softened up the United states to the processes of empire and contributed to circumstances bringing the nation on the verge of war in 1898,” as Tyrell has written. The Arc worked under the auspices of a government-sanctioned relief committee and carried out an official American policy of humanitarian assistance to the peasants. This policy changed after senator redfield Proctor visited Barton’s group in cuba and witnessed the extent of the peasants’ suffering. in a speech on the senate floor, he cited this experience as justification for congress to declare war on spain. his argument gave expansionist politicians and those concerned with protecting American commercial interests in cuba a new angle: now they could wrap their imperialist aims in the cloak of humanitarianism. The same underlying humanitarian assumptions driving the Arc’s efforts—that Americans had a duty to aid suffering cubans because they were fellow human beings and because Americans possessed the means to help them—provided an ideological justification for the American invasion and occupation . such “humanitarian” intervention offered a more ambitious vision than red cross humanitarianism: instead of merely mitigating existing suffering, it promised to prevent future suffering altogether by stopping its causes. Throughout this period, the Arc insisted on maintaining some independence from the U.s. Government, but it paid a price for doing so. Although the United states went to war with cuba ostensibly for humanitarian reasons, the navy’s blockade of the island during the war obstructed the Arc’s work of aiding civilians. As Barton fought to continue that work, she devoted little attention to the wartime mission of aiding sick and wounded soldiers. other “red cross” societies sprang up to serve this function, threatening Barton’s continued leadership of the organization. Although the Arc managed to co-opt the rogue factions, Barton’s group did not Cuba and Controversy 81 manage this multipronged aid effort well, and much of the aid collected was wasted. The Arc’s work in cuba nevertheless improved its reputation back home and resulted in its incorporation under a congressional charter, initiating the organization’s transformation into a quasi-official instrumentality of government. This turbulent episode illustrates two transhistorical problems facing humanitarian organizations that operate in areas of conflict. First, as the Arc first learned in Armenia, close cooperation with governments and their military organizations can compromise neutrality. But maintaining independence from a government can thwart access to people in need, as it did in cuba. second, “humanitarian” military intervention, in addition to serving as a convenient justification for imperialism, can undermine support for simple material humanitarian assistance.1 relief for Reconcentrados immediately upon her return from Turkey, Barton began receiving letters from Americans and cuban exiles urging the American red cross to help the starving peasants in cuba. during the preceding year, “the question of what should be done with cuba” had begun to preoccupy Americans. “cuba is their Armenia, and they feel very keenly the reproach of allowing the present miserable condition of the island to continue,” wrote William stead, the editor of the Review of Reviews, in January 1897. The crisis had begun two years earlier, when cuban revolutionary leaders, banding together under the slogan “cuba Libre!” had reignited an insurgent war against the spanish colonial government, which had ruled the island for almost four hundred years. The first insurgency, feeding on resentment against the spanish for the heavy taxes they extracted to send to madrid, had raged between 1868 and 1878. Although the spanish successfully quelled that first rebellion, they were now finding it hard to fend off the guerillas, who could hide out in rural areas and survive with the help of sympathetic farmers. Although both sides in this conflict committed atrocities, the American yellow press, especially Pulitzer’s New York World and its new competitor , William randolph hearst’s New York Herald, portrayed the cuban insurgents as brave and noble revolutionaries suffering under the brutal yoke of spanish rule. in late 1896 the American press started reporting on the war’s consequences to civilians in the countryside. earlier that year, spanish soldiers had begun forcibly...