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Raul should be spelled "raul" with a small r like "fidel".

Good links! Thanks for the reports...

DWR

I found Brian Latell’s book “After Fidel” dripping with sympathy for Fidel Castro. He began working as a CIA analyst of Cuba in 1964. His chores included reading and analyzing all of Castro’s speeches. That is, trying to interpret what Castro really meant and then writing a memorandum about it for U.S. government officials. Anyone doing that for thirty years, like he did, usually ends up insane.

Latell, who taught a Cuban History course at Georgetown University for decades, comes up short on pre-1959 Cuban history. He makes a number of disturbing factual errors, including stating that Alfredo Guevara was president of the FEU. Latell copied some of his errors from Serge Raffy’s “Castro el desleal,” which he cites.

There are a few interesting facts that point out why U.S. policy toward Cuba has been a total failure. Latell states that from 1964 to 1975, CIA analysts were divided over whether Castro was anti-American or a nationalist. Latell admits that for eleven years he was wrong, believing that Castro was not anti-American and could be swayed to cooperate with the U.S.

Latell also admits that he erred when drafting his last Cuba policy report to the government with none other than Castro spy Ana Belen Montes. Latell was unable to detect anything in her behavior or focus to indicate that she was undermining U.S. policy. Then again, Latell never favored an aggressive policy toward Cuba, and in 1975 drafted the blueprint for the “dialogue” with Castro.

Latell also acknowledges misinterpreting Castro’s support for the Puerto Rican terrorists operating on U.S. soil. He attempts to shift the blame onto the FBI for not providing him with information, but anyone reading contemporary newspaper accounts of Puerto Rican separatist bombings could have figured that out easily.

It is people like Latell who for decades provided U.S. officials with erroneous information that has hampered effective U.S. policy for bringing democracy to Cuba.

I haven't read After Fidel. I have read a very good analysis of what Cuba's future may be by Mark Falcoff. The book is: "Cuba: The Morning After--Confronting Castro's Legacy", which can be viewed here.


Mr. Falcoff does an in depth study of Cuba's past, present and possible future.
One thing that struck me was that Castro's regime has been doing the China syndrome. They have discreetly been placing active military officers in position of industry so when Castro goes to the trash heap of history, the ruling class will be poised to remain in control.

Hank,
In February 2002, Mark Falcoff was publicly calling for lifting the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/us-cuba/falcoff-embargo.htm
Falcoff is also a member of a Cuba "Steering Committee" headed by Marifeli Perez-Stable, a pro-Castro activist until the 1990s, who in 1983 was accused by DGI defector Captain Jesus Perez Mendez of being "controlled by the DGI."
http://memoria.fiu.edu/memoria/taskforce.htm
I would be real cautious about any analysis he does on Cuba.

Methinks that despite the negative outlook of the exec. summary, once fidel dies, the glue is gone and nothing will keep it together. Freedom and democracy will come with all the pains that accompany it.

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