 Complete the following phrase:  De Valeras thinking on external association was influenced, during his tour of the United States in 191920, by the US Sugar Intervention in Cuba. In U.S media in February 1920 he compared the future relationship between Britain and Ireland with the Monroe Doctrine relationship between the U.S. and Cuba. Darragh Gannon suggests the mixed reception this Cuban policy received among Dáil members foreshadowed the Treaty split of 19212. Nicholas Mansergh traces the first reference to external association to 27 July 1921, preceding a proposal by de Valera on 10 August for a treaty of free association between the Irish Republic and Great Britain. De Valera told Mansergh in 1965 that the idea of external association came to him one morning as he was tying his bootlaces, shortly after Jan Smuts exploratory visit following the June 1921 ceasefire which ended the 