The Cuba Wars

Fidel Castro, the United States, and the Next Revolution

By Daniel P. Erikson

On the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, expert Daniel Erikson explores the twilight of the Castro era and what the future has in store for America's last Cold War enemy.

Based on extensive visits to Cuba, unfettered access to government decision-makers and opposition leaders alike, Cuba Wars explores the two crucial questions of the coming era: When Fidel Castro dies, what will happen in Cuba? And what will happen in America?

There are few international relationships that rival in intimacy, passion, and sheer tension that between the United States and Cuba. From the Bay of Pigs fiasco to exploding cigars, the deadly serious threat of nuclear war with the Soviets to the Mariel boatlift, Elián Gonzalez, the Buena Vista Social Club, and most recently, the re-fashioning of Guantánamo Bay from U.S. military base to detention center in the war on terror, what happens in Cuba matters in America - and vice versa. January 1, 2009 will mark the 50^th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution—fifty years shaped by the powerful will of Fidel Castro. But Castro, the longest-serving head of government in the world, is ailing and may be gone from the scene before the anniversary arrives.

In Cuba Wars, Cuba expert Daniel Erikson explores the most recent twists and turns in the fifty-year saga of USA versus Fidel as it approaches its final act. When Castro passes from the scene, Cuba may see an emerging democracy, a capitalist gold rush, a socialist dystopia, or even civil war.

Reviews for The Cuba Wars

"A sharp and deeply reported account of dynamics informing US-Cuba policy since the Clinton administration"—Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. The Nation. Read full review.

"With this fresh, astute, and compassionate exploration of the past two decades of U.S.-Cuban relations, Erikson emerges as a valuable new voice in Washington foreign policy circles. An analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue, Erikson conducted research that took him to Cuba (including Guantánamo Bay) 14 times, and he also gained access to leading players in Caracas, Miami, and Washington. This fair-minded author allows the contending actors to speak for themselves, expertly guiding readers through the increasingly splintered yet still powerful Cuban-American exile community, the world of the courageous opposition figures remaining on the island, and, most sharply, the tumultuous U.S. Congress. Erikson blasts both the Bush administration, for its counterproductive pugnacious hostility, which handed Fidel Castro a ready excuse to brutally squash dissent, and the congressional Democrats, for being cowardly, confused, distracted, and divided. Although the transition to a more open Cuba is likely to be gradual, Erikson suggests, the United States could accelerate the "revolution of expectations" among Cuban youth with a policy of engagement: of more open travel, cultural contacts, and economic exchange. The Cuba Wars is an eloquent cry for more realistic, decent responses that help -- rather than further punish -- the long-suffering Cuban people.—Foreign Affairs