Dateline Havana: The Real Story of US Policy and the Future of Cuba (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"It would be nice if the incoming Obama administration read this book. After doing so, it would be hard to imagine its members continuing the policies of the past 40 years without being at least awfully embarrassed about it." --Conn Hallinan, Berkeley Daily Planet, January 2009

Book Review: Foreign Policy In Focus, Mavis Anderson | January 5, 2009

It's past time to acknowledge the real story of U.S. policy toward Cuba over the last 50 years and to seize this unique moment in history to change it. Reese Erlich, in his well-researched book Dateline Havana: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Future of Cuba, provides a snappy historical review of U.S.-Cuba relations, outlines insightful future scenarios, and points to opportunities that will exist under a new U.S. administration and a new Congress.

But as we enter what many think will be a new era of politics, the question remains: Will the Obama administration and the 111th Congress be wise enough to change course? Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), a leader in bipartisan efforts to end the ban on travel to Cuba, regularly quotes his father: "If you keep doin' what you're doin', you'll keep gettin' what you got."

Erlich posits that the original ideals of the Cuban revolution remain valid: land reform, ending racism, ending U.S. domination, economic equality, and self-sufficiency, among others. He does not paint Cuba as a paradise, but rather points to real problems and challenges within the Cuban system. For example, Cubans certainly do migrate to the United States, largely for economic reasons. Most Cubans, however, choose to remain and work within their own country -- struggling to survive economically and looking for solutions within the Cuban socialist system.

To understand this complicated reality, Erlich turns to history, contrasting the radically different versions of history studied by Cubans and U.S. citizens. He says that U.S. citizens are taught that we liberated Cuba from Spanish colonial rule in 1898; Cubans are taught that one form of domination replaced another. Erlich's review of the realities and myths of the Teller Amendment, the Platt Amendment, Cuban land reform, anticommunism as the excuse (not the cause) for U.S. antagonism, assassination plots, and the Bay of Pigs deserves our attention. It's noteworthy that some Cuban-American veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion, who consequently spent substantial time in Cuban jails, and scores of middle-aged Cuban Americans who came here as children or young adults to "escape" from Castro's Cuba, now work tirelessly for an end to the embargo.

Some of the challenges faced by Cuba are traced by Erlich to the embargo and to the influence on U.S. policy of the hard-line Cuban exiles that arrived in the United States before 1980. Erlich devotes more than two full chapters to the history and power of the Cuban-American community lobby, largely based in south Florida.
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After 50 years of covert and overt attacks on our neighbor island, after cruel policies that separate Cuban families and disadvantage U.S. citizens, and into our 11th "embargo" president, this engaging and well-written book is highly recommended as a prelude to change. Citizen awareness and action is called for now. Read the book and join the effort. --Book Review: Foreign Policy In Focus, Mavis Anderson | January 5, 2009

Product Description

Covering popular culture, the economy, and Cuban politics, veteran reporter Reese Erlich combines original photography with on-the-ground reporting from Havana and Miami. He explores Cuba's strained history with the US, the power of the Cuba Lobby and offers a fresh look at the island nation nearly 50 years after their historic Revolution to create a tableau that is at once moving and informative. This will be the stand-out book about Cuba during the media coverage of the anniversary. It will lay out the options and challenges facing the next American president. He concludes with prospects for policy change following the death of Fidel Castro.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Polipoint Press; 1 edition (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981576974
• ISBN-13: 978-0981576978
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #157,865 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Antidote to Slanted US Reporting on Cuba, February 24, 2009

By	Stansfield Smith (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you want to read just one book on Cuba, I would recommend this one. It is an easy read, packed with information, and surprisingly honest for a US journalist. The author has no ideological axe to grind, neither for nor against the Cuba government. He simply gives an honest, thorough and factual presentation of Cuba in a pleasantly readable way. His book covers a wide range of subjects, in both a personal and general way. For those who know more about Cuba, it has the bonus of containing a great deal of very useful references and footnotes. This is a very good book to give someone to start learning about what Cuba is really like, and doesn't want to get thrown into the constant ideological battles taking place in the US over Cuba. I recommend visiting Cuba, go see why the US government doesn't want you to go there, and read this book to educate yourself about Cuba before you go.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Discussion of US-Cuba Relations, April 15, 2009

By	Robert Farley (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In Dateline Havana, Reese Erlich takes on the central paradox of American attitudes towards Cuba, which is that almost no one in United States, on the right or the left, has a realistic appraisal of the modern Cuban state. The misperceptions and outright distortions of the right have, without doubt, had greater policy import, and are probably held by a greater number of people. However, those on the left often overlook the shortcomings of the Revolution, and the problems afflicting Cuba today. Although Mr. Erlich does not spare those on the left (he was once in solidarity with them) he appropriately reserves most of his criticisms for the right wing interpretation of the Cuban Revolution. It is this interpretation, advanced by Cuban exiles and unrepentant Cold Warriors, that has structured US policy towards the island for the last fifty years.

The strongest aspect of the book is the extended discussion of the Cuba Lobby. The Cuban exile community has engaged in political activity against Cuba since the early 1960s; this activity has extended from a direct invasion of the island, to a campaign of terrorism, to concerted efforts to mold US policy. The last has been most successful. Extremist Cuban-American exiles no longer represent a majority of the Cuban population of the United States. Nevertheless, they wield outsize influence over US policy towards Cuba. Reese argues that the Cuban-American extremist exiles succeed not simply because of the electoral power they wield in Florida, but also because they are the only ones paying attention. In this, as in many situations, a small minority with intense preferences can impose its preferred policies on a majority that just doesn't care very much.

Mr. Erlich's account of Cuban political repression is largely fair. I found it a touch too credulous in parts-- it's unsurprising that a dictatorship does not create strong incentives for speaking truth to power, and I'm not convinced that the Cuban government's resistance to the spread of cell phones was wholly the result of a capacity problem--but he constructively compares the current situation with that of the United States, its allies, and of Cuba prior to the Revolution. Mr. Erlich notes that the Revolution remains popular in substantial portions of the population, and that free elections would likely result in significant (if not, perhaps, majority) support for the current regime. That said, regimes confident of their popular support do not, by and large, need to resort to the oppressive measures that have characterized the Castro regime since the 1960s.

I was troubled by a few of the claims made by Reese; in particular, he cites reports that the United States engaged in biological warfare against Cuba on two separate occasions during the Cold War. These claims do not make up a substantial part of his argument, but nevertheless the evidence supporting them is exceedingly thin. Experts on biological warfare do not, by and large, accept these claims or list them in the history of the use of biological weapons. One footnote cites an article that is apparently no longer available on the internet. Again, these claims do not go to the heart of his argument, but it would still have been helpful either to excise them or back them up with more substantial evidence.

Mr. Erlich makes sophisticated sketches of a few potential transition paths. He warns against the belief that a US opening will undermine the regime in short order, noting that Canadian and European tourists and money have already flooded Cuba. Fair enough, but I suspect that American investment and tourism will dwarf the European and Canadian contributions in short order. I also suspect that this influx will have a significant economic and political impact on the Cuban state. Of course, any such impact depends on the United States relaxing a number of different restrictions on commerce and tourism, and the interest of the Obama administration in making big changes on Cuba policy remains in some question. In any case, Dateline Havana is an extremely useful primer on US-Cuban relations, and a strong contribution to the debate on the future of US policy towards Cuba.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pertinent and timely, February 10, 2009

By	Jose Sotolongo (Kingston, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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This is a history cum analysis of the Cuban government and its interactions with the US government from 1959, when Castro took over, to the present. It is generally accurate and reveals information not previously well publicized, thanks to arduous research by the author viz a viz review of declassified but not publicized documents from the US State Department.

Having said that, I found the author's slant (mostly pro-Castroite, always suspicious of US motives, albeit often justifiably) a bit tiresome. His diminution of the human rights violatons in Cuba undermines his credibility here and there, thus the 4 stars, not five. It is, nevertheless, an admirably researched book, important for anyone (even those in government positions) who may want a better understanding of the past and future for the relation between the two countries.

There are other sources readers may want to use to get a deeper understanding of the pre Castro Cuba and its troubled history with the US, including Tom Gjelten's book on the Bacardi family.