Overview
"At the height of the Cold War, the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations made removing Fidel Castro's regime one of their highest foreign policy priorities. Their fervent desire to get rid of Castro led to the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, but the efforts to oust his regime did not end there. It became an obsession." "The Castro Obsession provides new insight into the bold U.S. covert war against Cuba that lasted from 1959 until 1965. Primarly through the CIA and the military, the United States resorted to economic and political destabilization, propaganda, sabotage, hit-and-run raids, and assassination plots to try to topple the regime. This secret war was one of the most wide-ranging, sustained, expensive, and ultimately futile covert action campaigns in history." Instead of ridding the hemisphere of a dictator, these efforts increased his international political stature and provided him the excuse for more repression in Cuba. U.S. attempts to overthrow Castro also had dire unintended consequences, such as contributing to the Soviet decision to install nuclear missiles in Cuba, which produced the most dangerous crisis of the Cold War. Bohning sheds new light on this covert war, revealing that it was even more extensive, risky, and long-lived than previously thought.Synopsis
Making use of recently declassified documents as well as interviews with involved CIA agents and Cuban exiles, Bohning (a former Latin America editor for the Miami Herald) describes the US government's failed covert war against the regime of Fidel Castro during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He examines the policy makers reasoning as they planned the anti-Castro activities and describes how it translated into assassination plots, sabotage, and other attempts at political and economic destabilization that were ultimately undermining of US interests. Distributed in the US by Books International. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The Washington Post - Max Holland
Some of Bohning's best insights come from interviews with several key CIA officers who worked at the operational level -- i.e., where airy concepts and neat plans met reality. The perspectives of Ted Shackley, the JMWAVE station chief from 1962 to 1965, and Sam Halpern, an operations officer at CIA headquarters who worked the Cuba account, make for a fascinating look at "Mongoose," a largely fruitless effort conducted from 1961 to 1962. It was the first and last covert operation overseen by an attorney general (Robert Kennedy), and probably the most ill-conceived clandestine operation ever until the Iran-contra folly some 25 years later.
Editorials
Max Holland
Some of Bohning's best insights come from interviews with several key CIA officers who worked at the operational level -- i.e., where airy concepts and neat plans met reality. The perspectives of Ted Shackley, the JMWAVE station chief from 1962 to 1965, and Sam Halpern, an operations officer at CIA headquarters who worked the Cuba account, make for a fascinating look at "Mongoose," a largely fruitless effort conducted from 1961 to 1962. It was the first and last covert operation overseen by an attorney general (Robert Kennedy), and probably the most ill-conceived clandestine operation ever until the Iran-contra folly some 25 years later.— The Washington Post
From the Publisher
“This book represents the capstone on Don Bohning’s distinguished career of reporting on Cuba and all of the Caribbean and Latin America. His reportorial and analytical skills—well known to readers of the Miami Herald—are in clear evidence within these pages. This book sheds new light on an important chapter in U.S. policy toward Cuba, which dramatically shaped the history of Florida and of America during the Cold War.”“The execution and failure of the U.S.-sponsored invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, the frequent nuttiness and occasional lethality of CIA plots against the Castro regime, and the endlessly convoluted politics of Cuban-exile Miami in the 1960s come alive in this thorough, vastly informative, and admirably well-written account of the passions and policies that marked U.S. policy toward Cuba from 1959 to 1965.”
“THE CASTRO OBSESSION captures, in abundant detail, the complex plotting and intrigue of covert operations against Cuba. Bohning has catalogued the secret side of an amazing history that remains relevant to this day.”
"[An] engaging, disturbing, and important book . . . Given Bohning's well-deserved reputation for balanced and accurate reporting, his judgment conveys a wisdom from which current policymakers could well benefit in many areas."
"Fascinating, well-documented . . . an admirable commitment to accuracy and research . . . an absorbing account of clandestine activities."