In this sense, I think the disregard for Cuba's historical situation vis-à-vis the United States beyond the ill-fated Bay of Pigs operation or the Missile Crisis is revealing. There has been a significant double standard in the application of a sustained policy of maximum pressure towards the island since 1959 by the United States. The narrative is that successive Cuban, mainly Castro-run governments since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution have curtailed freedoms and mismanaged the republic, and there is certainly some, or quite a lot, of that. However, the political and economic development of the island has been intimately linked to U.S. aggressiveness. How can a country without great resources be sustained when it is subjected to the most comprehensive sanctions regime applied by Washington in the whole world, and also bombarded by CIA-, USAID-, Foggy Bottom-, and NED-backed influence operations? Or what about the insane designation of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism?