Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana

by William M. LeoGrande, Peter Kornbluh

Overview

History is being made in U.S.-Cuban relations. Now in paperback and updated to tell the real story behind the stunning December 17, 2014, announcement by President Obama and President Castro of their move to restore full diplomatic relations, this powerful book is essential to understanding ongoing efforts toward normalization in a new era of engagement. Challenging the conventional wisdom of perpetual conflict and aggression between the United States and Cuba since 1959, Back Channel to Cuba chronicles a surprising, untold history of bilateral efforts toward rapprochement and reconciliation. William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh here present a remarkably new and relevant account, describing how, despite the intense political clamor surrounding efforts to improve relations with Havana, negotiations have been conducted by every presidential administration since Eisenhower's through secret, back-channel diplomacy. From John F. Kennedy's offering of an olive branch to Fidel Castro after the missile crisis, to Henry Kissinger's top secret quest for normalization, to Barack Obama's promise of a new approach, LeoGrande and Kornbluh uncovered hundreds of formerly secret U.S. documents and conducted interviews with dozens of negotiators, intermediaries, and policy makers, including Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter. They reveal a fifty-year record of dialogue and negotiations, both open and furtive, that provides the historical foundation for the dramatic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba ties.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469626604
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/01/2015
Edition description:	Updated paperback edition
Pages:	584
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

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.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

With continual change in Washington, and continuity in Cuban leadership, the authors draw important lessons from the efforts of every administration since Eisenhower to negotiate with Cuba.—President Jimmy Carter

Editorial Reviews

Challenging the prevailing narrative of U.S.-Cuba relations, this book investigates the history of the secret, and often surprising, dialogue between Washington and Havana. . . . Suggest[s] that the past holds lessons for future negotiators.—The New Yorker



LeoGrande and Kornbluh's exhaustive and masterful diplomatic history will stand as the most authoritative account of U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations during the five decades of Cuban President Fidel Castro's rule.—Foreign Affairs



Told in clear prose, this richly detailed book underscores how diplomacy makes headlines, but many exchanges happen far from official negotiation tables.—Publishers Weekly, starred review



A tour de force, Back Channel to Cuba never simplifies the complexity of the post-Revolution relationship between the United States and Cuba. The authors' virtuosity and enthusiastic vigor is reminiscent of John Le Carre as a political moralist while adhering to exacting scholarly standards.—The American Conservative



An exceedingly well-written and well-documented account. . . . Essential for libraries that support research into the political and diplomatic history of America foreign relations with Cuba in the latter half of the 20th century.—Library Journal, starred review



A rich and timely review of the background to the normalization recently achieved.—Studies in Intelligence



Masterful. . . . A multifaceted contribution to our understanding of why the U.S.-Cuban relationship remained hostile for so long.—Political Science Quarterly

From the Publisher

08/25/2014
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.)

Publishers Weekly