Piero Gleijeses

Author of Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976

12 Works 203 Members 1 Review

About the Author

Piero Gleijeses is Professor of American Foreign Policy in the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, USA. He is the author of Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991 (2013), which won the AHA Friedrich Katz show more Prize, and Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959-1976 (2002), which won the 2002 Robert Ferrell Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, as well as La Esperanza Desgarrada: la rebelin dominicana de 1965 y la invasin norteamericana (2012) and Shattered Hope: The Guatemala Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954 (1991). show less

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Works by Piero Gleijeses

Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954 (1991) 73 copies

Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991 (2013) 31 copies

The Cuban Drumbeat (What Was Communism?) (2009) 10 copies

The Dominican crisis : the 1965 Constitutionalist revolt and American intervention (1978) 5 copies

America's Road to Empire: Foreign Policy from Independence to World War One (New Approaches to International History) (2021) 2 copies

The North Carolina Historical Review, Volume 73, Number 2 (April 1996) 2 copies

Ships in the night : the CIA, the White House and the Bay of Pigs 1 copy

Cuba y África : historia común de lucha y sangre (2007) 1 copy

Misiones en conflicto: La Habana, Washington, y Ãfrica 1959-1976 (Spanish Edition) (2007) 1 copy

La esperanza rota : La revolucion guatemalteca y los Estados Unidos, 1944-1954 - La Esperanza Rota (2008) 1 copy

Conflicting Missions Havana, Washington, & Africa, 1959-1976 1 copy

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Birthdate: 1944
Gender: male
Nationality: Italy (birth)
USA
Birthplace: Venice, Italy
Occupations: professor
Organizations: Johns Hopkins University

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Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and… by Piero Gleijeses

Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 by Piero Gleijeses tells the story of Cuba's military adventure in Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. Despite its small size and poor economy, Fidel Castro's Cuba managed to provide soldiers and support to several revolutionary movements in Africa's anti-colonial struggle.

As a Communist state, Cuba's actions were in direct opposition to the national security interests of the United States. Consequently, the U.S. often found itself supporting an opposing side in these struggles. The best example of this occurred in Angola where Cuba backed the MPLA and the United States backed the FNLA and the UNITA, while all three groups fought against the U.S. ally Portugal.

While not all of its interventions were successful--it failed to prevent the Congo from joining the anti-Communist camp as Zaire--Gleijeses provides a good account of the mixed bag that was Cuba's African adventure. During this time period, Cuba showed that a small country could still take on a powerful country like the U.S. if it is able to harness its people's superior motivation and is able to ride the wave of a popular ideology.

Cuba's foray into Africa is also an interesting story beyond its significance to the Cold War. This story provides many tales of intrigue and struggle that will keep the general history reader entertained.… (more)

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Bretzky1 | Aug 10, 2011 |

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