On the Cuban Revolution

Revolution in Cuba: An Essay in Understanding, by Herbert L. Matthews. New York: Scribner’s. 468 pp.

Cuba in the 1970s: Pragmatism and Insitutionalization, by Carmelo Mesa-Lago. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 179 pp.

With Fidel: A Portrait of Castro, by Frank Mankiewicz and Kirby Jones. Chicago: Playboy Press. 369 pp.

Cuba, Yes?, by David Caute. New York: McGraw Hill. 207 pp.

The Rise and Decline of Fidel Castro: An Essay in Contemporary History, by Maurice Halperin. Berkeley: University of California Press. $12.95.

For much of the past year—before Cuba’s recent African involvement—it seemed that relations between the United States and Cuba were proceeding toward normalization. This trend was complemented by a spate of new books about the Cuban Revolution, books whose authors seek to make that Revolution acceptable to North Americans in terms Fidel Castro surely wo...