Scan barcode
A review by bahareads
Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 by Piero Gleijeses
informative
medium-paced
3.5
Piero Gleijeses argues that Castro’s foreign policy in Africa was driven by revolutionary zeal and self-preservation and that by helping spark revolutions in Africa that the United States and other Western powers had to deal with it took the pressure off of Cuba during the fraught time of the Cold War.
Gleijeses uses Zaire and Angola as case studies to show Cold War crises in Africa up to 1976, and the United States' foreign policy in Africa. He proves throughout the book that the United States did not see Cuba as a threat in Africa. He shows readers using US officials’ own words they were surprised at Cuban intervention in Africa. Gleijeses states that Cuban intervention in Africa was a continuum of Cuba's relations with Africa, the Soviet Union, and the United States. He emphasises that African intervention was easier than Latin American intervention for Cuba because it had fewer risks and there was no head-to-head collision with the United States, though Cuba had more similarities to countries in Latin America than in Africa.
One of Gleijeses’ methods is to use a semi-biographical narrative approach for the book. He traces the various African leaders, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara actions and uses their personal documents to show how the various leaders shaped the historical events throughout the book. Gleijeses intervenes in Cold War historiography by telling a story from below. He shows the perspective of a 'third-world' country helping and intervening in another 'third-world' country. Gleijeses tells the voice of the ‘defeated’ of the Cold War years.
Gleijeses uses Zaire and Angola as case studies to show Cold War crises in Africa up to 1976, and the United States' foreign policy in Africa. He proves throughout the book that the United States did not see Cuba as a threat in Africa. He shows readers using US officials’ own words they were surprised at Cuban intervention in Africa. Gleijeses states that Cuban intervention in Africa was a continuum of Cuba's relations with Africa, the Soviet Union, and the United States. He emphasises that African intervention was easier than Latin American intervention for Cuba because it had fewer risks and there was no head-to-head collision with the United States, though Cuba had more similarities to countries in Latin America than in Africa.
One of Gleijeses’ methods is to use a semi-biographical narrative approach for the book. He traces the various African leaders, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara actions and uses their personal documents to show how the various leaders shaped the historical events throughout the book. Gleijeses intervenes in Cold War historiography by telling a story from below. He shows the perspective of a 'third-world' country helping and intervening in another 'third-world' country. Gleijeses tells the voice of the ‘defeated’ of the Cold War years.