US Foreign Relations with Socialist Nations

The United States’ unwillingness to engage in diplomatic relations with Cuba is hard to justify. It’s not because Cuba is socialist – the US interacts with other socialist nations. It’s not because there has been war between Cuba and the US – relations between socialist Vietnam and the US have been reestablished since the Vietnam War. One of the few explanations might be the stubbornness and unwillingness to compromise of both nations – the result of decades of US bullying and Cuban defensiveness.

Relationship between the US & Self-Declared Marxist-Leninist Countries
People’s Republic of China	The US’s largest foreign creditor, major trade partner
Republic of Cuba	No official diplomatic relations
Lao People’s Democratic Republic	Open foreign relations
Socialist Republic of Vietnam	Ended relations after the Vietnam War, reestablished in 1995