American University Professor, Co-Author Details 50 years of Secret Back Channel Negotiations with C
American University Professor, Co-Author Details 50 years of Secret Back Channel Negotiations with Cuba in New Book
Ten years of research, poring through hundreds of pages of previously classified U.S. and Cuban documents, and hours of interviews with Fidel Castro, former President Jimmy Carter, and other surviving policymakers and negotiators led William LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh to uncover the secret, back-channel contacts the two governments have had since 1959.
Washington, DC (PRWEB) October 21, 2014
Fifty-two years ago, the Cuban Missile Crisis fueled fears of nuclear Armageddon from across the Florida Straits. As the DEFCON level reached its highest alert, Washington and Moscow reached a diplomatic breakthrough removing the Soviet missiles. While Kennedy and Khrushchev negotiated, Washington also opened a secret back channel through Brazil to persuade Cuba to kick the Soviets and their missiles out. Over the ensuing years, U.S.-Cuban relations have been marked by lingering distrust, an embargo, and anything-but-normalized relations. Irreconcilable differences and Florida politics have kept the conflict alive, but 10 U.S. presidents, including John F. Kennedy, tried to return to some degree of normalcy with Castro. American University professor William LeoGrande and his co-author Peter Kornbluh look at the five decades of secret negotiations in their new book Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana (University North Carolina Press, Oct. 2014).
Since 1959 Every U.S. President & Castro Have Engaged in Dialogue
Ten years of research, poring through hundreds of pages of previously classified U.S. and Cuban documents, hours of interviews with Fidel Castro, former President Jimmy Carter, and other surviving policymakers and negotiators led LeoGrande and Kornbluh to uncover the secret, back-channel contacts the two governments have had since 1959. U.S. officials and a dozen private citizens, including former president Jimmy Carter, have engaged with Cuban counterparts in half a dozen different countries and in settings from five-star hotels and restaurants to the cafeteria at La Guardia airport. During the Carter administration, Coca-Cola chairman J. Paul Austin carried secret messages to Fidel Castro and during the Reagan administration, Peggy Dulany, David Rockefeller's daughter, carried a message from Castro to Secretary of State George Shultz.
The record of regular contact and dialogue over half a century compelled LeoGrande and Korbluh to tell the little known story of engagement. Whether you call it cigar diplomacy (using cigars for diplomatic ice breaking), back channel negotiation, or rapprochement, the fact is every U.S. president has tried to engage with Cuba to advance the national interest.
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http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/10/prweb12265567.htm
