Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution Book

An award-winning historian, Thomas Paterson tells the fascinating story of Cuban-American relations in the 1950s, from Fidel Castro's early fund-raising trips through the United States to the strong-arm Batista regime's fall and the flowering of the Cuban Revolution that has bedeviled the United States for more than three decades. With evocative prose and a swift-moving narrative, Paterson recreates the love/hate relationship between the two nations, then traces the intrigue of the insurgency, the unfolding revolution, and the sources of the Bay of Pigs invasion, CIA assassination plots, and the missile crisis. Drawing upon impressive international research, including recently declassified government documents and interviews, Paterson reveals how Washington, fixed on the issue of communism, laid the foundation for the long, bitter hostility between Cuba and the United States, and actually facilitated Castro's decisive rise to power. Ranging from Havana's seamy underworld to rebel mountain hideouts, this gripping and timely account explores the origins of America's troubled relationship with its island neighbor, and suggests paths to the future as the Clinton administration inches toward less hostile relations with a changing Cuba.Read More