Cuba on the Brink: Castro, the Missile Crisis, and the Soviet Collapse

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 - History - 537 pages
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and international socialism, Cuba now finds itself isolated as the United States continues to press for its economic and political collapse. How Fidel Castro sees Cuba's plight and what he hopes to do about it emerge from this account of a unique conference held in Havana in 1992. The meeting brought together participants in the Cuban missile crisis from the former Soviet Union, Cuba, and the U.S. to discuss its causes and course. This account is now available for the first time in paperback, on the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This first meeting between Castro, his ex-Soviet allies, and his American foes produced startling revelations about his dealings with the Soviets, chilling details of the number and kind of Soviet nuclear arms that Cuba possessed in 1962, and an illuminating account of Castro's view of the American threat--then and now. The dramatic exchanges between Castro and such conference participants as Anatoly I. Gribkov, former head of the Warsaw Pact; former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara; and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Special Assistant to John Kennedy, reveal misperceptions on all sides that led us to the brink of nuclear war. An extraordinary examination of an international crisis, Cuba on the Brink illustrates the ongoing "Cuba problem," and will help guide our actions toward other countries deemed hostile to our national interest.
 

Contents

Toward the Brink
3
Cuba on the Brink The October Crisis
15
Uses of the Brink Cuban American and Russian Motives at the Havana Conference
25
Cuba and the Brink Then and Now The Havana Conference on the Cuban Missile Crisis
53
Cuba and the Brink Fidel Castro v History
318
The Legacy of the Brink Unfinished Business of the Havana Conference
373
AFTERWORD
401
NOTES
421
BIBLIOGRAPHY
474
Chronology
487
Letters Between Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev
502
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
520
INDEX
525
Copyright

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