The Masters of War: Cuba, the United States, and Latin America [Hardcover]

Clara Nieto (Author), Chris Brandt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Clara Nieto -- a Colombian diplomat for more than 20 years -- offers an exhaustive critical analysis of U.S. policy toward Latin America, from the perspective of those most affected by it. Describing a coherent politics of intervention set into motion by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, The Masters of War sheds new light on events such as George Bush's invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause). Proceeding from country to country, the author connects seemingly disparate events to create a condemning picture.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

From the Publisher

"The study of U.S. interactions with Latin America is indispensable if we hope to pursue the wise counsel to 'know thyself.' Clara Nieto’s comprehensive and illuminating study provides an unusual and valuable guide, from a Latin American perspective, focused on Cuba but ranging widely and drawing from rich literature and personal knowledge." —Noam Chomsky

"This book, by the distinguished Latin American writer Clara Nieto, is exactly what is needed to supply the missing context for the superficial stories we find in the mass media, and for the paltry treatment of Latin America we get in our educational system. We in the United States need badly to hear a Latin American point of view, and here we have it from a scholar of international repute. Ms. Nieto provides us with a sweeping history of U.S. relations with Latin America. She begins and ends with Cuba, giving it special attention, but also displays her solid knowledge of the rest of the continent. Her account, based on meticulous research and presented with clarity and grace, will be enormously useful for a long time to come." —Howard Zinn, from the foreword

"With great clarity, ample information and first-hand experience, Clara Nieto analyzes and demonstrates the immense impact of the Cuban phenomenon in the difficult and contradictory ties between Washington and the continent." —Juan Tokatlián, Former Director Center of International Research, Universidad de los Andes --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Pr (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583222677
• ISBN-13: 978-1583222676
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,712,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Long Narrative of US Agression towards Latin America, June 17, 2007

By 

A Student of History (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masters of War: Latin America and U.S. Agression From the Cuban Revolution Through the Clinton Years (Paperback)

This book is a typical denunciation of US policy towards Latin America. It focuses on Cuba since the Revolution (1959), but covers events from countries throughout the region, including the Central American civil wars and the Southern Cone military dictatorships. Everything is true in the book; but its great weakness is that it is nothing more than a long list of events trying to show that US policy towards Latin America was belligerent in the latter half of the twentieth century. It lacks any original or dynamic interpretations. I would only recommend this book to someone who does not know, or believe, that the United States has behaved as an imperial power in Latin America.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account of recent Latin American history, July 12, 2004

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Masters of War: Latin America and U.S. Agression From the Cuban Revolution Through the Clinton Years (Paperback)

In this excellent history of Latin America since 1959, the Colombian diplomat Clara Nieto surveys the continent country by country, showing how the US state has consistently intervened in their internal affairs.
The alliance of neo-liberalism and social democracy internally, the USA and the EU externally, has kept capitalism in power in Latin America. So half its people live in worsening poverty, a third are unemployed, and foreign debt totals $400 billion.
Nieto focuses on the Cuban revolution and its effects. In March 1959, President Eisenhower ordered CIA sabotage and terrorism against Cuba. Kennedy was worse: Nieto writes, "His policies opposing the Revolution were more aggressive than Eisenhower's." Two days before the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, US planes bombed Cuba's cities, under Kennedy's orders. Kennedy started the US policy of counter-insurgency in Latin America (and Africa and Asia), supporting death squads and military dictatorships. Nieto shows how the US state sponsored counterrevolutionary wars in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Guatemala and Chile.
Johnson carried on Kennedy's policies: he backed the generals' fascist coup in Brazil in 1964, and attacked the Dominican Republic in 1965. Nieto depicts Reagan's wars - occupying Honduras, arming the death squads of El Salvador, running the Contras' terrorist war against Nicaragua, attacking Grenada - and Bush's attack on Panama.
The US state has never ceased its illegal, terrorist attacks on Cuba. The New York Times reported in 1983 how the head of a Miami-based anti-Cuban terrorist group admitted in a US court that he had taken germs to Cuba in 1980, proving Cuba's accusations of CIA biological warfare against Cuba. The US state made Armando Valladares - a former Batista police officer and convicted terrorist - ambassador and president of its delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission.
But the Commission's 1989 report refuted all the US slanders about Cuba's torture and abuse of political prisoners. The world knows now who tortures and abuses political prisoners detained without charge or trial.
Nieto's final chapter examines how Cuba has survived and kept its revolution going. The key is that its people, determined to defend their democracy, independence and sovereignty, actively prevent the counter-revolution from organising.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for the student of Latin American history, October 6, 2005

By 

Goshawk "Goshawk" (Hope Mills, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masters of War: Latin America and U.S. Agression From the Cuban Revolution Through the Clinton Years (Paperback)

Overall an excellent book that deals with U.S. military interventions in Latin America from the perspective of a Latin American scholar. My one critique of the book is an obvious bias against the United States with no intent on even trying to be objective. I would still highly recommend it. The obvious biases aside it is an excellent tool in understanding why Latin American people and leaders have negative feelings towards the United States and why Latin Americans see the U.S. as the bad guys.