NWIG (Jul 2001)

Security, insecurity, and the U.S. presence in the Caribbean

  • William O. Walker

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 75, no. 3&4
pp. 289 – 295

Abstract

Read online

[First paragraph] Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba. PETER KORNBLUH (ed.). New York: The New Press, 1998. viii + 339 pp. (Paper US$17.95) Psywar on Cuba: The Declassified History of U.S. Anti-Castro Propaganda. JON ELLISTON (ed.). Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1999. 320 pp. (Paper US$ 21.95) Intelligence and the Cuban Missile Crisis. JAMES G. BLIGHT & DAVID A. WELCH (eds.). London: Frank Cass, 1998. x + 234 pp. (Cloth US$ 47.50) Live by the Sword: The Secret WarAgainst Castro and the Death of JFK. Gus Russo. Baltimore MD: Bancroft Press, 1998. xvi + 619 pp. (Cloth US$ 26.95) From Pirates to Drug Lords: The Post-Cold War Caribbean Security Environment. MICHAEL C. DESCH, JORGE I. DOMI'NGUEZ & ANDRÉS SERBIN (eds.). Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. viii + 161 pp. (Paper US$ 19.95) Cuba, the Caribbean, and the United States have been frequently and intimately linked for more than a century. Because of the status of the United States as a global power, viewing their common histories from the vantage point of the United States is understandable. Such a perspective consigns the Caribbean, and to a lesser extent Cuba, to the role of passive actors in the making of much of their own histories. Several recent publications, though written for very different purposes, permit us to ask whether Cuba and the Caribbean have not been more active participants in their recent histories than U.S. predominance in the region would seem to allow.

Keywords