From Caudillo to Jefe Maximo

Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom, by Hugh Thomas. New York: Harper & Row. 1696 pp.

Guerrillas in Power: The Course of the Cuban Revolution, by K. S. Karol. Translated from the French by Arnold Pomerans. New York: Hill & Wang. 624 pp.

Until a decade ago, national revolutions in underdeveloped countries supposedly would establish constitutional governments. These revolutions were led by middle-class liberals or radicals who, it was hoped, might accelerate industrial development with the aid of foreign capital, would foster the growth of democratic movements and social institutions—and so would raise the lower classes to an economic, political, and cultural level approaching that of the Western p...