Overview

Lars Schoultz offers a comprehensive chronicle of U.S. policy toward the Cuban Revolution. Using a rich array of documents and firsthand interviews with U.S. and Cuban officials, he tells the story of the attempts and failures of ten U.S. administrations to end the Cuban Revolution. He concludes that despite the overwhelming advantage in size and power that the United States enjoys over its neighbor, the Cubans' historical insistence on their right to self-determination has been a constant thorn in the side of American administrations, influenced both U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy on a much larger stage, and resulted in a freeze in diplomatic relations of unprecedented longevity.

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9781469603445

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Reviews

That Infernal Little Cuban Republic is a superb chronicle of and commentary on the history of U.S.-Cuba relations. Lars Schoultz explains U.S. Cuba policy as, on balance, a failure. Tellingly, the profound depth of that failure since the end of the Cold War shames the great majority of U.S. citizens, including this one, for tolerating such special interest folly disguised in the cloak of freedom and democracy. --Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Visiting Harriman Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell The detail, the vivid writing, the close focus on decision makers, and the wealth of new information combine to make a terrific book for scholars, students, tourists, and policy makers. This book should become the standard reference work on U.S. policy toward Cuba. --Philip Brenner, American University The United States has normal relations with China and Vietnam. Why not with Cuba? As Lars Schoultz so well sums it up in his excellent and highly readable book, it is because the United States cannot get over its obsessive uplifting mentality, i.e., the belief that it is the sacred duty of the United States to uplift the Cuban people. Even most Cubans who want change believe they must seek it on their own. Schoultz expresses no optimism that the United States will get over its obsession any time soon. --Wayne S. Smith, former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana (1979-82) Why can the United States not work out a rational relationship with Cuba? After all, we have normal relations with China and Vietnam. Why not with Cuba? As Lars Schoultz so well sums it up in his excellent and highly readable That Infernal Little Cuban Republic , it is because the United States cannot get over its obsessive uplifting mentality, i.e., the belief that it is the sacred duty of the United States to uplift the Cuban people. As Secretary of War William Howard Taft put it in 1907, 'We must teach them a higher and better civilization.'

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