--- title: Barack Obama Will Be Second President to Visit Cuba description: President Obama is planning to visit the island nation in March canonical: https://time.com/4228874/obama-coolidge-cuba/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-18T15:38:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:23.449Z article:section: History og:title: Here's the Only Other Time a Sitting President Visited Cuba og:description: President Obama is planning to visit the island nation in March og:url: https://time.com/4228874/obama-coolidge-cuba/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32dfba64d4da5575/69887e1d3c1639dbd545c13f/cuba.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Us President, Calvin Coolidge'S Arrival In Havana For Pan American Conference, 15 Jan 1928. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's the Only Other Time a Sitting President Visited Cuba twitter:description: President Obama is planning to visit the island nation in March twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32dfba64d4da5575/69887e1d3c1639dbd545c13f/cuba.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's the Only Other Time a Sitting President Visited Cuba  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 18, 2016 3:38 PM UTC  U.S. President Calvin Coolidge's arrival in Havana for Pan American Conference, Jan. 15, 1928. U.S. President Calvin Coolidge's arrival in Havana for Pan American Conference, Jan. 15, 1928.Print Collector / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 18, 2016 3:38 PM UTC The [announcement](https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/700320240022921216) on Thursday that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama plan to visit Cuba in March is notable on its own, coming as part of the President’s ongoing efforts to normalize relations with the nearby island nation. The visit is “another demonstration of the President’s commitment to chart a new course for U.S.-Cuban relations and connect U.S. and Cuban citizens through expanded travel, commerce, and access to information,” the White House said in a statement, noting that it has been nearly nine decades since a sitting president made such a trip. In fact, the 1928 visit in question, made by President Calvin Coolidge in January of that year, was the [_only_ time](https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/travels/president/cuba) a sitting president has gone to Cuba. **Read More:**[_Why Did the U.S. and Cuba Sever Diplomatic Ties in the First Place?_](http://time.com/3637822/cuba-history/) The limited number of presidential trips to Cuba is surprising not only because of the proximity of the two nations. Until relations soured in the 1950s, the U.S. and Cuba had been closely linked for a while. Spain gave the U.S. control of the island as a result of the Spanish-American War, in 1898, and the independence of Cuba in 1901 came with [strings attached](http://time.com/3672066/guantanamo-bay-history/) that maintained the close link between the two governments. Cuba was also a popular tourist destination, conveniently located and [famed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1928-01-16/page/15/) for “palaces, plazas, colonnades, tropical parks.” Still, the tradition of sitting presidents making trips outside the U.S. is a relatively new one, and it was even more so in Coolidge’s time. He was only the fifth chief executive ever to leave the U.S. during his tenure. And, TIME [suggested](http://time.com/vault/issue/1928-01-23/page/7/) as Coolidge set off for Key West, there to catch his ship to Havana, a superstition had attached itself to the tradition: Warren Harding had died shortly after his return from Canada, and the Treaty of Versailles was rejected shortly after the return of Woodrow Wilson (then the champion presidential traveler, by number of trips) from France. In the early 20th century, U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere evolved such that it became necessary for Coolidge to make the trip, whether or not it was bad luck. Though the Monroe Doctrine had asserted America’s place in the hemisphere about a century earlier, that role grew as Teddy Roosevelt decided to “speak softly and carry a big stick” and William Howard Taft embraced “dollar diplomacy.” By the late 1920s, a diplomatic gesture was needed to temper the resentment that power might provoke. To show, as TIME [put it](http://time.com/vault/issue/1928-01-16/page/7/) that week, “that though circumstance makes him seem a Caesar, the President of the U. S. is but the tribune of a peacefully potent and ambitious people.” By addressing the Pan-American Conference in Cuba, Coolidge could show that he saw his fellow leaders in the hemisphere as colleagues and peers, not subjects. ### A History of Cuba-U.S. Relations in 13 TIME Covers  Fulgencio Batista on the Apr. 26, 1937, cover of TIME TIME  Fidel Castro on the Jan. 26, 1959, cover of TIME Cover Credit: BORIS CHALIAPIN  Che Guevara on the Aug. 8, 1960, cover of TIME Cover Credit: BERNARD SAFRAN  Jose Miro Cardona on the Apr. 28, 1961, cover of TIME TIME  Blas Roca on the Apr. 27, 1962, cover of TIME Cover Credit: BERNARD SAFRAN  Adm. George Anderson on the Nov. 2, 1962, cover of TIME Boris Chaliapin  Fidel Castro on the Oct. 8, 1965, cover of TIME Cover Credit: BERNARD SAFRAN  Fidel Castro (and others) on the Jun. 13, 1969, cover of TIME Cover Credit: KARSH, HARRY REDL, BEN MARTIN.  Fidel Castro and Cyrus Vance on the Sept. 17, 1979, cover of TIME Cover Credit: RODDEY E. MIMS; HIRES-GAMMA/LIAISON.  Fidel Castro on the Dec. 6, 1993, cover of TIME Cover Credit: GIANFRANCO GORGONI  The Sept. 5, 1994, cover of TIME Cover Credit: PAUL DAVIS  Fidel Castro on the Feb. 20, 1995, cover of TIME Cover Credit: DAVID BURNETT  Fidel Castro and the Pope on the Jan. 26, 1998, cover of TIME Cover Credit: GERARD RANCINAN Sure enough, Coolidge’s [speech](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=443) was one of congratulations and camaraderie. The nations of the Americas were generally peaceful, forward-looking and respectful of one another, he said, and Cuba stood out as an example among them: --- > “” --- But the appearance of equality did not, to some, conceal the potential for an ulterior motive behind the outreach. “Around the Caribbean and down the whole continent south of it lies an empire which the U. S. would never want to conquer by shrapnel,” TIME [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1928-01-16/page/7/), “but which it never will conquer by checkbooks and sales talk so long as there is any trace of powder in the air.” In fact, the extent of peace-time American influence in Cuba, as exemplified by Coolidge’s visit, would be just one of the many sticking points that would eventually erode relations between the two nations—a situation that, nearly a century later, President Obama hopes to improve. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4228874/obama-coolidge-cuba/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4228874/obama-coolidge-cuba/"},"headline":"Here's the Only Other Time a Sitting President Visited Cuba","datePublished":"2016-02-18T15:38:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:23.449Z","description":"President Obama is planning to visit the island nation in March","url":"https://time.com/4228874/obama-coolidge-cuba/","keywords":["White House","politics","Cuba topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32dfba64d4da5575/69887e1d3c1639dbd545c13f/cuba.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32dfba64d4da5575/69887e1d3c1639dbd545c13f/cuba.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Us President, Calvin Coolidge'S Arrival In Havana For Pan American Conference, 15 Jan 1928.","caption":"Us President, Calvin Coolidge'S Arrival In Havana For Pan American Conference, 15 Jan 1928.","creditText":"Print Collector / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4228874/obama-coolidge-cuba/","name":"Here's the Only Other Time a Sitting President Visited Cuba"}}]}] ```