Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and HavanaHistory is being made in U.S.-Cuban relations right now. This powerful book is essential to making sense of the new and ongoing steps towards normalization between the longtime antagonists. Challenging the conventional wisdom of perpetual hostility between the United States and Cuba--beyond invasions, covert operations, assassination plots using poison pens and exploding seashells, and a grinding economic embargo--Back Channel to Cuba chronicles a surprising, untold history of bilateral efforts toward rapprochement and reconciliation. Since 1959, conflict and aggression have dominated the story of the United States and Cuba. Now, William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh present a remarkably new and relevant account. 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 reveal a fifty-year record of dialogue and negotiations, both open and furtive, indicating a path toward a world beyond the legacy of hostility. LeoGrande and Kornbluh have 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. The authors describe how, despite the intense political clamor surrounding efforts to improve relations with Havana, serious negotiations have been conducted by every presidential administration since Eisenhower's through secret, back-channel diplomacy. Including ten critical lessons for U.S. negotiators, the book offers a key perspective on the normalization process underway and illuminates a fascinating passage in U.S.-Cuban relations as it happens. |
Contents
Rebuilding Bridges | 1 |
Patience and Forbearance | 6 |
The Secret Search for Accommodation | 42 |
Castro Reaches Out | 79 |
Kissingers Caribbean Détente | 119 |
Close but No Cigar | 155 |
Diplomatic Necessity | 225 |
From Calibrated Response to Parallel Positive Steps | 268 |
Turning Back the Clock | 345 |
A New Beginning? | 368 |
10 INTIMATE ADVERSARIES POSSIBLE FRIENDS | 402 |
NOTES | 419 |
485 | |
501 | |
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Common terms and phrases
administration Africa agreement Alarcón ambassador Angola April Attwood August Benes bilateral Bonsal Brzezinski Bundy Bush Carter Clinton cooperation crisis Cuba policy Cuba’s Cuban American Cuban government Cuban officials Cuban revolution DDRS December Department dialogue diplomatic discuss Donovan embargo Embassy exile February Fidel Castro FRUS Guantánamo Guevara Havana hijackers Ibid initiative interview issues January Jimmy Carter July Kennedy Kennedy’s Kissinger Kissinger’s Kornbluh Latin America Lisa Howard March Martí meeting Memorandum of Conversation Miami migration military National Security negotiations Newsom Nixon normalize relations November NSA Cuba Collection Nuccio Obama October ofthe Padrón Pastor Peter Kornbluh Peter Tarnoff political prisoners President presidential Radio Martí Raúl Castro Reagan recalled regime relations with Cuba release reported response revolution Richardson Rodríguez Rogers secret September Skoug Smith Soviet talks Tarnoff tion told TV Martí U.S. government U.S. officials U.S. policy U.S.-Cuban relations United Vance wanted Washington White House Wikileaks