Håkan Karlsson, PhD – Professor, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden
Tomás Diez Acosta (1946-2023), Honorary Author – Professor and Researcher at the Instituto de Historia de Cuba, Cuba

Series: Political Science and History
BISAC: HIS036060; POL011000; POL057000
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52305/FKEU7472

This book presents a detailed analysis of the U.S. policy towards Cuba that was formulated and adopted by the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration during the years 1959 and 1960, when it had to face the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January 1959. Based on governmental sources, as well as other sources from both the U.S. and Cuba, the book studies the policy of the Eisenhower administration, and how the first period of ambiguity was replaced by a path of aggression and violence. Beside economic and diplomatic pressures a “dirty war” was launched within the framework of the CIA’s ‘Covert Action Program’, and a military invasion was planned. A plan that ended in the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. This book shows that the aggressive attitude of the Eisenhower administration towards the Cuban Revolution, did not break the revolution, rather it forced Cuba into the open arms of the USSR and the socialist block. During the two years described in the book another more constructive development of the relation between the two nations had been possible, but the decisions taken by the Eisenhower administration and the Cuban government during these two years were crucial since they have influenced the policy towards Cuba of all subsequent U.S. administrations until today. This book is unique since it is written from a Cuban perspective that will complement and enrich the knowledge of the U.S.-Cuban relationship during the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s.