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Book Review

Book Review In his book Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban, Thomas G. Patterson explores Cuban relationships with the United States during the Batista and Castro regimes. In the 1950’s, when Fulgencio Batista was in power, the United States had an almost imperialistic dominance over Cuba. Patterson uses the word “Hegemony” to describe this dominance. He defines hegemony as “the dominance or preponderant influence that permitted U.S. decisions to condition Cuba’s politics, economy, culture, society, and military. U.S. hegemony empowered North Americans to set and maintain most of the rules by which Cubans lived and by which the Cuban – American relationship was governed” (7). At this time, the U.S. was imposing it self on Cuba without really understanding the people or the culture. The U.S. viewed Cubans as an “emotional, romantic, and childish people suffering from excessive pride” (6). There was obviously little respect for Cubans from the U.S. Moreover, Cubans felt that the strong, multifaceted U.S. influence was causing Cuba to loose its “independent identity” (8). Economically, Cubans “enjoyed one of the one of the highest standards of living in Latin America” (34). This is predominately due to the fact that Cuba exported half its sugar and two-thirds of it total exports into the U.S., and imported three-fourths of their total imports from the U.S. Although the U.S. (35). Although the U.S. boosted the Cuban economy, Cubans resented that they were still living at an economic level lower than Americans. The average Cuban income was one- third the average of Mississippi, the poorest state in the U.S. in the 1950’s. This is because Batista’s corrupt government was poorly handling the economy, so that there were not enough employment opportunities for professionals (35-41). Frustrated with U.S. influence, Cubans exhibited strong nationalism. The nationalists fell into two groups. First, there were the moderates that were not anti-American. They did not want to break ties with the U.S. but wanted to reduce the dependency on it. The second group, the fidelistas , were enemies of Batista, and since Batista was associated with the U.S, therefore enemy’s of the U.S. as well (8). Obviously, as the name indicates, these were followers of the most predominant revolutionary of the time, Fidel Castro. With his brother Raul and Che Guevera, Castro was able to invade Havana and over throw the Batista’s government. Paterson claims that Castro’s success is due to the fact that the U.S. did not initially see Castro as a threat, especially since he was not initially allied with communists; “In 1958, Castro had moderated his public statements about nationalization of foreign-owned property and had promised democratic elections” (252). However, as Cuba became more anti- American, severing all ties to the U.S., Castro became more allied with communism and the Soviet Union. The U.S. responded with assassination attempts and military intervention, which brought Castro and the Soviet Union even closer. Paterson claims that “had there been no exile expedition at the Bay of Pigs, no destructive covert activities, no assassination plots, no military maneuvers and plans, no economic and diplomatic steps to harass, isolate, and destroy the Castro government in Havana, there would not have been a Cuban missile crisis” (260). This is not a justification or appraisal of Castro’s government, but it is instead an analization of U.S. decisions made in dealing with Castro’s government. Throughout the book, Patterson does not claim that either of Cuba’s last two governments were better or worse than each other, nor does he present a pro-communist or pro-capitalist view on the revolution. Instead, he presents the events that occurred and an interpretation of U.S. involvement with Cuba. He points out that the U.S., although democratic was expressing and imperialism or hegemony over Cuba, and when this hegemony was threatened the U.S. may not have dealt with it in the best possible way, as illustrated in the above quote. It is almost as if Paterson blames the U.S. for encouraging Batista’s corrupt government and allowing communist influence into Cuba. Paterson’s book is organized so that the introduction provides an overview of historical events, then goes into factual detail about the revolution, and finally he offers his interpretation. For his book, Patterson uses a variety sources such as unpublished and published papers and records, published foreign and domestic government records and documents, oral histories, interviews, letters, memoirs, newspapers and periodicals, and numerous secondary books and articles. He is also a History Professor at the University of Connecticut and author and editor of several books dealing with Kennedy and the Cold War and of textbooks. Paterson’s book is well documented and his credentials prove his research reliable. This book is well written in that it keeps the reader’s interest even when going into detail about the historical facts about the revolution. He provides a historiography that provides social and economic influences on the revolution and presents the events in a chronological order. What I liked about his book is that he presents a study of the U.S. influence on Cuba and the hegemonic relationship they had. He presents a bias against the U.S. not in favor of communism but in favor of Cuban sovereignty. I would recommend this book to specialists and undergraduates because it provides a different look at the revolution. However, even though this book provides historical information on Cuba, the fact that the author does present an opinion disqualifies it for use as a textbook. Bibliography: Paterson, Thomas G. Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Pp. 352.

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