The United States played a decisive role in Cuba's political and economic development during the first half of the twentieth century. The emergence in the 1950s of a broad-based opposition movement to the Batista dictatorship was viewed by American policy makers as a threat to American interests. The paramount concern of the Eisenhower administration was to deny political power to the Castro forces, a goal pursued by all means short of direct military intervention. Subsequently, American policy toward Cuba, as Morris Morley shows in this book, has focused on reasserting US influence over the island. Drawing on personal interviews, classified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and other primary sources, this study presents the most comprehensive analysis to date of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' efforts to isolate Cuba politically within Latin America and economically throughout the capitalist world. During the Nixon, Ford, and Carter presidencies, as
This study of U.S. policy toward Nicaragua during the Nixon, Ford, and Carter presidencies reveals the fundamental importance Washington placed on preserving state institutions in Latin America while
Empire or Republic? makes the necessary, but much overlooked, link between our nation's international policies and the domestic situation. The authors contend that the Reagan, Bush and Clinton adminis