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
Sales rank:	376,053
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

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

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

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2014
Lying just 90 miles off the coast of Florida, Cuba has been an area of political and diplomatic interest to the United States for more than a century, upon the island's independence from Spain. The arrival of the revolutionary Fidel Castro in 1959 and his virulent anti-American stance set the tone for U.S.-Cuban relations ever since. The common belief that America has for many years had little to do with Cuba beyond establishing embargoes and other sanctions against the Cuban leadership is a fallacy. Coauthors LeoGrande (government, American Univ., Washington, DC) and Kornbluh (National Security Archive) have crafted an exceedingly well-written and well-documented account detailing the numerous behind-the-scenes efforts officials in both countries have made over the past half century to improve relations between the two nations. Even after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, for example, President Kennedy sought a quiet dialog with Castro. The authors chart the ups and downs of Cuban-American relations over the past 50 years and provide a valuable analysis of past mistakes and diplomatic approaches that might prove successful in the future. They are optimistic that eventually a rapprochement can be achieved but also caution that the process will prove challenging. VERDICT 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.—Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

Library Journal

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