 | Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana Subjects: United States -- Foreign relations -- Cuba; Cuba -- Foreign relations -- United States; Negotiation -- United States -- History; Negotiation -- Cuba -- History; Reconciliation -- History; United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945–1989; United States -- F; For more than 50 years, the U.S. and Cuba have endured a tempestuous relationship fraught with the Cold War tensions that followed Fidel Castro's rise to power, the subsequent U.S. embargo, the Bay of Pigs debacle, and the Cuban missile crisis. LeoGrande, an American University government professor, and Kornbluh, a researcher at the National Security Archive, dug into classified and declassified records to chart the myriad attempts of presidents, from Eisenhower to Obama, to normalize American relations with Cuba. Through both official channels and secret dialogues, third-party nations such as Brazil, Mexico, and Spain served as intermediaries between U.S. presidents and Cuban officials. Jimmy Carter came closest to a wary modus vivendi with the formidable Castro, but his State Department and National Security Council advisers worked at cross-proposes, leaving Carter to carry on his grand but futile project into retirement. Even the Soviet Union's collapse did not translate into better ties as evidenced by the willingness of Reagan's secretary of state, Alexander Haig, to turn Cuba "into a parking lot."¿ Despite good intentions, Barack Obama has scarcely fared better than his predecessors. Told in clear prose, this richly detailed book underscores how diplomacy makes headlines, but many exchanges happen far from official negotiation tables. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. William M. LeoGrande, professor of government at American University, is the author of Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992 , among other books. Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., is the author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability , among other books. |
