Kennedys and Cuba: The Declassified Documentary History

The abortive U.S. invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis the following year were two of the most important moments in American foreign policy in the twentieth century. They were also early hallmarks of the presidency of John F. Kennedy in which his brother Robert played key roles. The involvement of the Kennedys with Fidel Castro’s Cuba began in JFK’s earliest days in the White House and extended until well after the missile crisis, almost until the assassination in Dallas. In this intriguing collection of documents, drawn from the State Department, the Kennedy Library, private papers, and the Assassination Records Review Board, and including newly released materials, Mark White traces the attitudes and actions of the Kennedys in their fateful dealings with Castro and Cuba. In his selection and commentary, Mr. White has constructed a virtual narrative which allows the reader to see, through the documents, how the story developed. It becomes clear that the Kennedys’ fervent desire was to oust Castro by any means possible short of all-out war. Yet in JFK’s last days, as Mr. White reveals, the United States signaled some movement towards rapprochement. The Kennedys and Cuba is an important record of one of America’s thorniest and most persistent foreign policy problems.

In this intriguing collection of documents, drawn from the State Department, the Kennedy Library, private papers, and the Assassination Records Review Board, and including newly released materials, Mark White traces the attitudes and actions of the Kennedys in their fateful obsession with Castro and Cuba. Full of fascinating information. --Mary Carroll, Booklist

Financial Times

Fascinating...absorbing.

Mark J. White teaches American history at Eastern Illinois University. He is the author of Missiles in Cuba and other studies in American diplomatic history.