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The Great Game in Cuba: CIA and the Cuban Revolution by [Joan Mellen]

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Joan Mellen

The Great Game in Cuba: CIA and the Cuban Revolution Kindle Edition

by Joan Mellen (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

22 ratings

“Joan Mellen tells a brilliantly researched, meticulously supported, and compulsively readable tale that everyone concerned with how America operates should know.” —Samuel R. Delany, author of Dhalgren and Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders

This completely revised and newly updated edition of The Great Game in Cuba uses the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution to examine the CIA’s inner workings during the fifties and sixties. Detailing the agency’s lies and deceits, Mellen paints a vivid behind-the-scenes picture of the CIA in Cuba after the Castro revolution: what it wanted and the lengths it was willing to go to paralyze the opposition to Fidel Castro.

The game begins with Robert J. Kleberg, Jr., proprietor of the legendary King Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the world. Kleberg’s messianic ambitions bring him to Cuba, where he establishes a satellite ranch managed by his right-hand man, the James Bond–type character Michael J. P. Malone, who secretly reported to both the FBI and to at least five CIA handlers.

From there, the plot thickens as an array of Cubans share never-before-revealed information regarding the agency’s activities in Cuba and its attempts to unseat Castro and install a CIA-friendly figurehead in his place. The mysterious disappearance of Camilo Cienfuegos, a major figure in Castro’s government, is told here for the first time. The agency’s shady dealings with a major US publication are uncovered.

A testament to the sheer volume of previously classified and untold information, The Great Game in Cuba is a story the world needs to hear.

Print length

475 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Skyhorse
Publication date

March 8, 2016
File size

28453 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

It is no secret that the CIA engaged in a variety of schemes, some bordering on farcical, and utilized a variety of unsavory individuals (or “assets”) to carry out the removal of Fidel Castro. After the brush with nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis, those efforts were largely abandoned. But for die-hard anti-Castro Cubans and their American supporters, the efforts continued. Mellen, a journalist and professor of English at Temple University, has written an interesting but often confusing chronicle of some of these efforts centered around Robert Kleberg Jr. Kleberg owned the giant King Ranch in Texas and had owned ranches in Cuba, which the Castro government expropriated. He was aided by several Cuban exiles who had originally supported Castro’s efforts to topple the Batista regime. When Mellen sticks to their plots, her story is often absorbing, but she frequently veers off into diatribes against the supposed duplicity of the CIA, primarily because it kept Kleberg and his associates at arm’s length. Still, this is a useful, if uneven, examination of aspects of the long, futile campaign to oust Castro. --Jay Freeman --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

“A ‘must read’ for the serious minded, who will find it both riveting and fascinating in yet another chapter of the untold history of the Cold War.”—Peter Janney, author of Mary’s Mosaic

“Until now, the role of Texas’ King Ranch in anti-Castro activities during the turbulent 1960s has remained largely unknown. Based on never-before-seen documents and interviews with key witnesses, Joan Mellen opens an important new window on the CIA's secret history.” —Dick Russell, author of On the Trail of the JFK Assassins

“Joan Mellen tells a brilliantly researched, meticulously supported, and compulsively readable tale that everyone concerned with how America operates should know.”—Samuel R. Delany, author of Dhalgren and Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders --This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN : B01B11TST0
Publisher : Skyhorse; Reprint edition (March 8, 2016)
Publication date : March 8, 2016
Language : English
File size : 28453 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 475 pages
Lending : Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #50,073 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #10 in Intelligence & Espionage (Kindle Store)
- #10 in History of Cuba (Kindle Store)
- #49 in 20th Century History of the U.S.

Customer Reviews:
22 ratings

Customer reviews

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1 star		17%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Eric Selby

This Is a Very Informative Book

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2013

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Let me begin by saying this: the reader reviewer who says this book isn't much about the CIA quite clearly didn't read this really informative and well written book. These sentences come early on in the book: "These Texans [a reference to the mentality of the Texan culture] began from the premise that war was the price of the free pursuit of profit." And on the next page this: "War was about profit, not politics, which suited the defense contractors clustered in Texas. Wars of duration were preferable. The longer the war persisted, the greater the financial gain for the contractor." Think former vice president and once head of Halliburton, Richard Cheney!

I first heard about this book when the author was interviewed on an NPR show, either Diane Rehm or Terry Gross. A professor who teaches creative writing has written a piece of well research journalistic non-fiction? And since I live in Miami Beach and have become very interested in learning more about the more recent Cuban history, I decided to purchase the book. This week when one of my college students who is himself Cuban born saw the book, he asked if I would let him read it which I will. And before we ended the conversation, I confirmed how different what I told him I had read was from the propaganda Cuban students are fed.

This book has a complete bibliography as well as notes at the end. When I finished this book, I was more convinced than ever that the CIA is really a very dangerous organization and that, indeed, the reason the Bay of Pigs failed was because the CIA wished that, hoping that then-President Kennedy would focus on Vietnam where the CIA was certain the United States would find itself in a long, long war that would, of course, produce wealth for private enterprises--many out of Texas--who provide all the "stuff" needed in wars.

12 people found this helpful

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Michael Chesser

The Great Game in Cuba is great reading

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2014

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The Great Game in Cuba is great reading. The early history of the King ranch is a testament to ingenuity and persistence, and Joan Mellen thoroughly documents the trials and struggles of the early days of the ranch. The latter parts of the book document how Robert Kleberg expanded the ranch to other countries, especially into Cuba, and how this resulted in a working relationship with the CIA. She gives a sympathetic description of the Cubans who were exiled from their island, and of the manipulation of some of the exile groups by our government. This is an important part of American history, and I highly recommend this book.

2 people found this helpful

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Luv 2 read

Just okay. I expected more from this author.

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2017

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Just okay. I expected more from this author.

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Vaanx

Fantastic!

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2017

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