George Hahn

Regardless, America wrote checks when other victors would have demanded reparations.

In hindsight, it's easy to discount U.S.

magnanimity as Cold War pragmatism, but that misses the contribution of the American spirit and our capacity to forgive.

Had American voters been consumed by hatred and xenophobia – understandable sentiments after years of war and sacrifice –

the isolationism of the pre-war years might have returned.

Instead, seven months after signing the Marshall Plan into law, Truman won reelection, suggesting that a significant number of American voters found space in their hearts and wallets for people who had been their enemies just three years prior.

That selflessness helped install a global operating system financed by American capital, secured by the U.S.

military, and held together by American generosity and kindness.

Eight decades later, one of our most underrated assets remains our talent for turning enemies into allies.

Similar to many relationships and brand equity, the current administration has taken a blowtorch of performative masculinity and stupidity to these assets.

Despite six decades of hostility, the infrastructure of American empathy and generosity to Cuba already exists.

After the Obama administration loosened travel restrictions in 2016, 1.2 million Americans visited Cuba over two years, outstripping tourists from every other country.

Of the 3 million Cubans in the U.S., 57% are immigrants with first-hand ties to their homeland.

Cuban Americans are believed to send between $2 billion and $4 billion per year to their relatives back home, though exact numbers are difficult to come by because of U.S.

restrictions on commerce with the island.

Writing in Mother Jones about how her mom regularly sends care packages and money to relatives in Cuba, Laura Morel observed that exiled Cubans are keeping the nation alive.

formal channels also exist.

The U.S.

resumed aid to Cuba in 1990 after a 30-year Cold War hiatus, though the Trump administration effectively turned off the flow of economic support last year.

The stockpile of U.S.