And the Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba : A Personal Portrait

Chronicles life in Cuba from the fall of Batista to the present day, offering insights into little-known events of Cuban-American relations.

The author went into exile soon after the Castro takeover and joined the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front, an organization that played a vital role in CIA operations against the Castro regime. Carbonell addresses one of the most puzzling questions of recent history: why Washington launched the 1961 Bay of Pigs operation, then withdrew support. His answer emerges in his account of a 1962 meeting between John F. Kennedy and the leaders of the Cuban Brigade in which the President revealed that the Soviets had threatened to attack West Berlin if the U.S. continued to back the invasion. In a controversial hindsighted view of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, Carbonell argues persuasively that "Washington flinched and the Russians stayed" and that the latter subsequently transformed the island into a virtually impregnable base for Communist agitation and subversion in Latin America and Africa. The author, now a Connecticut lawyer, also discusses what he considers the Stalinization of Cuba, the impact of Cuban emigres in America and the future of U.S.
Cuban relations. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The author, a descendant of an important Cuban political family, and a young lawyer at the time of the 1959 revolution, provides an upper-class, liberal, and insightful view of Castro. He joined the anti-Castro movement in Miami, participating in the Bay of Pigs invasion. His memoir, combined with interviews from other participants, reveals some very telling and original conclusions about the U.S. support of the invasion and anti-Castro groups from 1960-62. The title is misleading, for although the author implies that Russian missles are still in Cuba, the remainder of his account of Soviet influence in Cuba after 1962 is anecdotal, brief, and undeveloped. Recommended for academic collections only. See also Jorge Dominguez's To Make a World Safe for Revolution: Cuba's Foreign Policy , below.
- Roderic A. Camp, Central Coll., Pella, Ia.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.