“Dateline Havana combines good investigative reporting with sharp analysis. Erlich takes us inside the cultures of Cubans and Cuban Americans, an eyewitness to their lives and their challenging politics over 40 years of reporting from the island nation. Dateline Havana is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the problems and seeing change in U.S. Cuba policy.”
―Walter Cronkite, former anchor of CBS Evening News
For five decades, Cuba and the United States have had a hostile relationship. But with the transfer of power from Fidel Castro to Raul Castro, Cuba is poised for big changes. What do these changes mean for Cubans and for U.S.-Cuban relations? Veteran reporter Reese Erlich set out to answer that question on the eve of the Cuban Revolution's fiftieth anniversary.
Dateline Havana is a personal yet considered exposé of U.S. policy and the future of Cuba. Reporting from Havana, Washington DC, and Miami, Erlich explores Cuba's strained history with the United States and the power of the Cuba Lobby. From Miami-based terrorists in Cuba to the green revolution in Cuban agriculture, he unearths telling details about U.S.-Cuba relations and present-day realities on the island.
Covering Cuban culture and politics, Erlich creates a tableau that is at once moving and informative. Along the way, he debunks many myths--perhaps most tellingly in the real story of the Buena Vista Social Club, which has little in common with the documentary by Wim Wenders. He paints a nuanced portrait of a nation cast in black and white by the Cuba Lobby, official U.S. Cuba policy, and the American media.
Erlich's deep knowledge of Cuba's history and his personal contacts with ordinary Cubans, Cuban and U.S. officials, and Cuba Lobby personalities inform Dateline Havana 's evaluation of U.S. options regarding Cuba.
From the Back Cover
Dateline Havana combines good investigative reporting with sharp analysis. Erlich takes us inside the cultures of Cubans and Cuban-Americans, an eyewitness to their lives and their challenging politics over 40 years of reporting from the island nation. Dateline Havana is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the problems with and seeing change in U.S. Cuba policy.
-- Walter Cronkite, journalist and former anchor of
CBS Evening News Reese Erlich's carefully researched new book, Dateline Havana, provides a historical perspective on the reasons that the United States and Cuba don't get along. It documents the sometimes hilarious and absurd lengths to which the U.S. government and the Cuba Lobby have gone to discredit Fidel Castro. Dateline Havana is mandatory reading for anyone concerned about the future of Cuba.
--Lee Lockwood, Castro's Cuba, Cuba's Fidel
In Dateline Havana, Erlich talks to people from all sectors of society. Refusing to be put off by the myriad obstacles that plague journalists trying to cover the Cuban experience, Erlich provides a unique look at a distinct social and economic system filled with contradictions, failures, and successes.
--Portia Siegelbaum, network news producer
Reese Erlich provides a well-documented view of one of our closest yet least understood neighbors. His perspectives on the island nation come from interviews with ordinary citizens as well as officials on both sides of the divide. He ventures an educated guess at how near-future Cuban history will unfold.
--Margaret Randall, Cuban Women Now and To Change the World: My Years in Cuba
About the Author
Reese Erlich’s publications include Dateline Havana, The Iran Agenda, and Target Iraq, which he co-authored with Norman Solomon (introduction by Howard Zinn and afterword by Sean Penn). He reports regularly for National Public Radio, Latino USA, Radio Deutche Welle, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He also writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News. In 2001, he produced a one-hour radio documentary, “The Struggle for Iran,” which was hosted by Walter Cronkite.