Barack Obama’s accommodation with Castroite Cuba is a low point in the history of American international relations. Benjamin Franklin affirmed, “Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” The Obama administration, in its attitudes on Iran, Syria, and Ukraine as well as on Cuba, appears to prefer the principle, “Where tyranny dwells, there is my country.”

About Cuba, consider historical precedents. The 1972 opening by president Richard Nixon to Communist China, then in the turmoil of the Maoist Cultural Revolution, realized a justifiable foreign policy goal—a common response to Soviet intrigues—and was cautious and narrow. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, encouraging the abandonment of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, stayed firm in calling for genuine change before they would embrace new political authorities in the former Soviet empire. Labor rights were granted beginning in Poland, media censorship was abolished in Moscow, the Berlin Wall was torn down, and free elections were held in the former party-states. All furnished sensational evidence of an authentic transformation.