There was a time when Cuba felt like an enemy with the capacity to punch way above its weight class.

It's got about as much land area as the state of Tennessee and something like 1 30th the population of the U.S.

But it lies less than 100 miles from the Florida coast, and during the Cold War, Cuba aligned

with the Soviet Union around the goal of spreading communism throughout the world.

It's been a long time since Americans' greatest fear was a communist takeover, is Cuba any kind of threat to us?

From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. President Trump is trying to make the case that

Cuba in 2026 still poses a significant threat to U.S. national security. But he has also portrayed

the regime running Cuba as going down, hobbled by the

interruption of oil shipments from Venezuela and weak enough to perhaps find itself dependent on and

eager to placate the capitalist behemoth that is the United States. John Lee Anderson joins us to

talk about his reporting on this. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where you can read his

article, Is Cuba Next? John Lee, welcome to think. Thanks, Chris. Nice to be with you.

You open with this scene of Latin American diplomats talking among themselves in Havana about the

current U.S. posture toward Cuba, which has all of them concerned. One said President Trump's language is harsher than the way John F. Kennedy talked about Cuba

during the Cuban missile crisis.

Yes. I mean, the way this executive order that came out while I was in Cuba that Trump, you know,

published described Cuba as a national

security threat to the United States. It went on at length with allegations that Cuba was a sanctuary

for Hamas and Hezbollah, which is, there's no evidence for whatsoever. And frankly, quite specious. And narco-trafficking, again, which

is untrue. If there is one country in the region, which has not been a transshipment

point for drugs to the U.S. for some time, it's probably Cuba. So, you know, it felt like a doctored allegation,

a series of allegations in order to justify an executive order, which culminated in the threat

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