Customer Reviews

Guerrilla Prince: The Untold Story of Fidel Castro

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As one of the thousands of the Cuban non-political middle class who had to flee Cuba leaving everything behind including family, who not only experienced and suffered Castro's rise to power first hand, and whose family and himself personally knew quite a few of the persons which the book makes reference to; I, would not edit anything in this book. This is an accurate and well researched work as its large number of appendix sources testify. Geyer's only hope for her book has been to open the eyes of those who are still under Castro's spell for pre 60's revolutionary romanticism. Her book details Castro's rise to power accurately including his use of brutality and its resulting human suffering which are inherent to any totalitarian regime.

This book is a very well written analysis of Castro's regime as well as his personal methods of operation. It does an excellent job of helping to understand what makes him tick. However, it is extremely slanted toward the anti-Castro Miami Cuban community, and virtually ignores the black Cubans. Highly recommended, but take the bias into account, because it is easy not to.

This is the best written biography of Fidel Castro. It covers almost all of his life focusing mostly on the political and military aspects. If you want to get a sense of society as a whole I would recommend reading Fidel Castro by Quirk but otherwise this is an excellent start to Castro's life. You could read this and feel that you have covered every relevant part of his life and then some. If you want to understand how Cuba was transformed into what it is today this is essential reading. Highly recommend.

This is a great book! I do think it is up to the reader to analize the information condensed in this book. They are all from outside perspectives.Still, I believe the book provides a good well rounded image of what Castro really is all about.

You can say Anne Geyer is Pro Miami based Cubans, anti communist or what ever other label you can think of but for some body that was not present during the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Anne Geyer has a very accurate and descriptive detail account of the events that transpired then. Reading her story brought back incredible memories of my childhood, how my parents had to abandon all their belongins and their own parents in order to save their children. If you experienced the revolution as a child and want to travel back in time to learn the details of the period, I highly recommend this book.

Geyer writes a well researched expose of one of the most enigmatic world figures of our times. Fidel Castro has been revealed. A must read for anyone who desires to understand modern history.

After seven years of exhaustive research Georgie Anne Geyer produced this 457 page book about Fidel Castro, one of the few remaining dinosaurs of the Marxist-Stalinist Cold War, Who still invokes communism as a governing policy. As readers of Casto's history are aware, he is at heart a murderous thug, the personification of that virulent alpha-chimp personage that can be found in every human society throughout history. His need to dominate and control his people supercedes any manifestation to the contrary putting him in the same category as a Hitler, Lenin or Stalin. Even a far-Left crank such as Noam Chomsky has averred that Cuba under Castro is a "Stalinist hellhole".

Geyer follows Castro through his entire life weaveing a surprisingly fair and balanced tale of a man who, while worshipped by Leftists, is abhorred by freedom loving conservatives whose lifestyle choices center around the touchstone of individual liberty. It's a remarkable tale of a driven, machiavellian man who, borne of not inconsiderable bravery, assiduously fights for, gains, and builds a power base 90 miles off the coast of the U.S.A. The fact that he murders and jails his own accomplices, drives his remaining countrymen into menial poverty, and becomes a player on the world stage, is all documented in this terrific book (readers of Armando Valladare's book "Against All Hope", can seamlessly interweave both narratives to form a fuller picture of Castro).

The sadness of this tale is that so few in America fully understand the cruelty of Castro and the murderous bent he shares with other, aforementioned, dictators of his ilk. The Elian Gonzalez saga was unfortunately made into a sideshow under the Clinton administration to the detriment of the truth. A more responsible press could have contrasted both sides of that issue.

That so many in America are still blinkered by Socialism's promise, of delivering unmitigated prosperity to the masses, is partial testament to why Castro has remained in control of his island prison for over 40 years. That free elections in Cuba don't exist, that hundreds of thousands have risked and frequently lost their lives making the 90 mile passage across the Caribbean sea, seems not to deter the Leftist faithful from worshipping at their self-constructed altar of Fidel. It's just too familiar a totem for them to jettison.

Geyer speaks Spanish, which helped when she interviewed Castro four different times. She also interviewed hundreds of other sources as part of her intensive research. It's made clear in this book that Castro's supporters fit the mindset in the song lyric penned by Paul Simon in "the Boxer" i.e. that a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. While Castro is a fascinating man by virtue of his political capabilities, many have been the plots to bring him down; and, to give him his due, he has survived them all well into his seventies.

This is an excellent look behind the veil of a charismatic leader who has done his best to preserve his image as a caring revolutionary bringing free education and healthcare to the those that Juan Peron called the "shirtless ones". For this his acolytes eulogize him. But, for those like Valladares, he will remain forever a heartless demon. Like many other books that have been under-promoted to the public, this one deserves to be recommended reading for all secondary and college students throughout the world.

This book gives you a view inside the political and military decision making of the Cuba communist regime. It is incredible to see how every major decision is controlled and dictated personally by Fidel Castro himself. The so-called Revolution is really nothing more than Fidel Castro's personal wishes and views. What the revolution wants and does is not determined by what the proletarian wants as he demagogically preaches. This book truly takes the mask away and shows the real dictatorial and egocentric personality of Fidel Castro for the world to see, putting him up there with other dictators like Nicolae Ceaucescu, Joseph Stalin and Kim Jong il. All of the Cuban communist government's crimes and all the suffering of the Cuban people will be well known to the rest of the world after his communist regime is no more.

========================================================================

Este libro muestra una ventana dentro de las decisiones militares y políticas del régimen comunista cubano. Es increíble ver como cada decisión de importancia es controlada y dictada personalmente por el propio Fidel Castro. La llamada revolución no es nada más que la visión y los deseos personales de Castro, lo que la revolución quiere y hace, no es determinado por el proletariado como Castro demagógicamente predica. Este libro realmente desenmascara y muestra los verdaderos rasgos dictatoriales y ego centristas de la personalidad de Fidel Castro. Ubicándolo en un mismo grupo con dictadores como Nicolae Ceaucescu, Joseph Stalin y Kim Jong il. Todos los crímenes del gobierno comunista cubano y el sufrimiento del pueblo cubano saldrán a la luz pública mundial cuando su régimen comunista deje de existir.

Here is the true story of Castro, written largely from a foreign policy standpoint. This is not a story of the everyday man in Cuba(although we do learn that he suffered much economically). This is not an economic history of Castro's Cuba(Although we learn how much the economy declined and sugar production as well). This is the story of Castro's foreign flings and the cult of personality around him. We learn of Castro's invasions of a dozen countries in Africa, from Angola to the Congo. We learn equally of Castro's associations with his Latin American compatriots and his attempts to invade and infiltrate most of his neighbors. Those that love Castro and believe he created a socialist paradise in Cuba will not be happy with this book. Equally those wanting to learn the gruesome details of the many suppressed by Castro will also not be happy. This is a fair portrait of this larger then life Guerilla and the wrath he has brought upon the world. This is not a negative book that condemns Castro, in fact I find myself admiring him more after reading it. What one does have to ask themselves if they are an admirer of Castro is if he is truly loved by his people why are their no free elections? Why are other political parties outlawed in Cuba? Why are only government sponsored newspapers allowed? If Castro's socialism was such a paradise then why not let his own people write what they think of it, and say what they think, why murder your political rivals? Or banish them? It is so obvious that communism and all it brings is slavery to its own people, Cuba is a great example and this book tells all about Castro. The author could have done away with the investigation of the Kennedy murder because she reveals nothing new but pollutes many pages with theories.

An excellent and easy to read biography of Fidel Castro: from his childhood to his rise to power in Cuba and the world stage. Geyer's analysis of the Castro persona is impressive. This book truly tells the real dictatorial, micromanaging, and egocentric personality of Fidel Castro, putting him up there with other dictators like Stalin, Mao and Kim Jong il. Many little known facts about the Cuban dictator are shown throughout the book, such as: Castro's attempt on the life of Leonel Gomez during his days as a student at the University of Havana, and his initial acts of supporting subversion in Panama and the Dominican Republic in 1959, starting his long career as a troublemaker in the Americas. She goes into the trial and harsh punishment of Camaguey province commander Hubert Matos (got 20 years for resigning his post as a protest for communist infiltration) and the mysterious disappearance of legendary commander Camilo Cienfuegos in late 1959. Geyer displays a clever analysis of Castro restructuring of the communist party to his own ends: total power in Cuba and the support of the Soviet Union. Most interesting is her analysis of the close relationship between the two Spanish Caudillos (Castro and Franco), their love of military tactics and strategy, and their shared hatred of the U.S. Her coverage of Castro's adventurism in other countries is comprehensive, from his sponsorship and training of thousands of foreign Marxist guerrillas and subversives in Cuba (which continues to this day) to his orchestration of communist takeovers in Angola and Nicaragua. Geyer's biography is a unique insight into the life of the man who will hopefully be the last Maoist Stalinist dictator in the Americas. As a matter of fact, this book by Geyer is recommended in my own book about Memories from the Land of the Intolerant Tyrant (available from Blue Note Books) as one of the best about Fidel Castro Castro and the Cuban Revolution.