Last weekend, Barack Obama became the first sitting American President to visit Cuba in almost 90 years. The last President to visit Cuba was Calvin Coolidge in 1928, who went there on a U.S. battleship.
When Barack touched down at Havana, he sent out a tweet, “Que bolá Cuba?”, hardly able to contain his excitement. He’s even brought his First Lady and two daughters for the tour.
But how does the American public feel about Cuba? Sure, President Obama is excited about normalizing relations with Cuba. But for more than fifty years, Cuba was a Cold War enemy and synonymous with the former Soviet Union. The memories of nuclear missiles just 90 miles from the U.S. mainland still loom in many.
In fact, public opinion of Cuba has been vastly unfavorable for most of the last 20 years. In a 1996 Gallup poll on Cuba, only 10% of respondents had a favorable opinion. Up to two years ago almost 60% of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Cuba. But this year, the sentiment has changed – the majority of Americans now view Cuba favorably for the first time. Finally, the American public appears to be cool about Cuba. Here is the breakdown of the same Gallup poll on Cuba for the last 10 years.
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<img src="https://venngage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/e2d522dc-b875-471a-8b14-3691b0f69032-2.png" alt="Infographic: Americans Are Finally Cool About Cuba | Venngage" /> American Are Finally Cool about Cuba | <a href="https://venngage.com/blog/american-opinion of-cuba-infographic">Venngage</a>