The most thorough account yet available of a revolution that saw the first true agrarian reform in Central America, this book is also a penetrating analysis of the tragic destruction of that revolution. In no other Central American country was U.S. intervention so decisive and so ruinous, charges Piero Gleijeses. Yet he shows that the intervention can be blamed on no single "convenient villain." "Extensively researched and written with conviction and passion, this study analyzes the history and downfall of what seems in retrospect to have been Guatemala's best government, the short-lived regime of Jacobo Arbenz, overthrown in 1954, by a CIA-orchestrated coup."--Foreign Affairs "Piero Gleijeses offers a historical road map that may serve as a guide for future generations. . . . [Readers] will come away with an understanding of the foundation of a great historical tragedy."--Saul Landau, The Progressive "[Gleijeses's] academic rigor does not prevent him from creating an accessible, lucid, almost journalistic account of an episode whose tragic consequences still reverberate."--Paul Kantz, Commonweal

Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954

History

Gleijeses, Piero

Americas

Princeton University Press

This is a fascinating study, first commissioned in 1992 by the CIA itself as an internal teaching tool and classified "secret," and later (in 1997) made public during a brief vogue for more open disclosure policies at the agency. The relatively few redacted portions are represented in the present volume by blank spaces. The study exposes the specific conditions which led to the CIA's short-lived "success" in its Guatemalan operations, why that success indeed proved illusory, and how the CIA was in error to use the results of its campaign in Guatemala as encouragement to proceed with covert operations in other countries, such as Cuba. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Secret History: The C.I.A.'s Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954

Cullather, Nick

Stanford Univ Pr

Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976

This is a compelling and dramatic account of Cuban policy in Africa from 1959 to 1976 and of its escalating clash with U.S. policy toward the continent. Piero Gleijeses's fast-paced narrative takes the reader from Cuba's first steps to assist Algerian rebels fighting France in 1961, to the secret war between Havana and Washington in Zaire in 1964-65--where 100 Cubans led by Che Guevara clashed with 1,000 mercenaries controlled by the CIA--and, finally, to the dramatic dispatch of 30,000 Cubans to Angola in 1975-76, which stopped the South African advance on Luanda and doomed Henry Kissinger's major covert operation there. Based on unprecedented archival research and firsthand interviews in virtually all of the countries involved--Gleijeses was even able to gain extensive access to closed Cuban archives--this comprehensive and balanced work sheds new light on U.S. foreign policy and CIA covert operations. It revolutionizes our view of Cuba's international role, challenges conventional U.S. beliefs about the influence of the Soviet Union in directing Cuba's actions in Africa, and provides, for the first time ever, a look from the inside at Cuba's foreign policy during the Cold War. "Fascinating . . . and often downright entertaining. . . . Gleijeses recounts the Cuban story with considerable flair, taking good advantage of rich material.--Washington Post Book World "Gleijeses's research . . . bluntly contradicts the Congressional testimony of the era and the memoirs of Henry A. Kissinger. . . . After reviewing Dr. Gleijeses's work, several former senior United States diplomats who were involved in making policy toward Angola broadly endorsed its conclusions.--New York Times "With the publication of Conflicting Missions, Piero Gleijeses establishes his reputation as the most impressive historian of the Cold War in the Third World. Drawing on previously unavailable Cuban and African as well as American sources, he tells a story that's full of fresh and surprising information. And best of all, he does this with a remarkable sensitivity to the perspectives of the protagonists. This book will become an instant classic.--John Lewis Gaddis, author of We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History Based on unprecedented research in Cuban, American, and European archives, this is the compelling story of Cuban policy in Africa from 1959 to 1976 and of its escalating clash with U.S. policy toward the continent. Piero Gleijeses sheds new light on U.S. foreign policy and CIA covert operations, revolutionizes our view of Cuba's international role, and provides the first look from the inside at Cuba's foreign policy during the Cold War. --&gt;

Africa

The University of North Carolina Press

This is a compelling and dramatic account of Cuban policy in Africa from 1959 to 1976 and of its escalating clash with U.S. policy toward the continent. Piero Gleijeses's fast-paced narrative takes the reader from Cuba's first steps to assist Algerian rebels fighting France in 1961, to the secret war between Havana and Washington in Zaire in 1964-65-where 100 Cubans led by Che Guevara clashed with 1,000 mercenaries controlled by the CIA-and, finally, to the dramatic dispatch of 30,000 Cubans to Angola in 1975-76, which stopped the South African advance on Luanda and doomed Henry Kissinger's major covert operation there. Based on unprecedented archival research and firsthand interviews in virtually all of the countries involved-Gleijeses was even able to gain extensive access to closed Cuban archives-this comprehensive and balanced work sheds new light on U.S. foreign policy and CIA covert operations. It revolutionizes our view of Cuba's international role, challenges conventional U.S. beliefs about the influence of the Soviet Union in directing Cuba's actions in Africa, and provides, for the first time ever, a look from the inside at Cuba's foreign policy during the Cold War. -copy for pb reprint - "Fascinating . . . and often downright entertaining. . . . Gleijeses recounts the Cuban story with considerable flair, taking good advantage of rich material" -Washington Post Book World "Gleijeses's research . . . bluntly contradicts the Congressional testimony of the era and the memoirs of Henry A. Kissinger. . . . After reviewing Dr. Gleijeses's work, several former senior United States diplomats who were involved in making policy toward Angola broadly endorsed its conclusions" -New York Times "With the publication of Conflicting Missions, Piero Gleijeses establishes his reputation as the most impressive historian of the Cold War in the Third World. Drawing on previously unavailable Cuban and African as w

America's Road to Empire: Foreign Policy from Independence to World War One (New Approaches to International History)

America's Road to Empire surveys and analyses United States' foreign relations from the country's independence in 1776 until its entry into World War One in 1917, using primary source materials and case studies. The book covers key themes including: - the role that notions of "white superiority" played in US foreign policy - the search for absolute security that repeatedly led the United States to trample on the liberties of other countries; - and the idea of American 'exceptionalism' - the clash between the idealism of US rhetoric and its actions - which has led to a persistent failure to understand how "European" U.S. policy actually was. Whilst providing analytical overview, Piero Gleijeses also uses case studies which examine overlooked aspects of U.S. foreign policy, particularly concerning marginalized populations. He draws on archival U.S. and European primary sources and incorporates the latest research from the US, British, French and Spanish archives, as well as newspapers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Mexico. A highly original account of the United States' rise to power drawing on multilingual scholarship, this is an important book for all students and scholars of United States foreign relations up to the First World War.

Bloomsbury Academic

Review “Drawing on international research in multiple languages, Piero Gleijeses brilliantly illuminates the rise of the United States to global power in a contest of rival empires. With clear purpose and lucid writing, America's Road to Empire ranges from the American's initial anti-colonial struggle for independence to the later conquest of distant dominions. Combining aggression, fear, and self-righteousness, American leaders pursued the fantasy of perfect security through expansion across a continent and then an ocean.” ―Alan Taylor, author of American Revolutions (Norton), USA Product Description America's Road to Empire surveys and analyses United States' foreign relations from the country's independence in 1776 until its entry into World War One in 1917, using primary source materials and case studies. The book covers key themes including:- the role that notions of "white superiority" played in US foreign policy - the search for absolute security that repeatedly led the United States to trample on the liberties of other countries; - and the idea of American 'exceptionalism' – the clash between the idealism of US rhetoric and its actions – which has led to a persistent failure to understand how “European” U.S. policy actually was. Whilst providing analytical overview, Piero Gleijeses also uses case studies which examine overlooked aspects of U.S. foreign policy, particularly concerning marginalized populations. He draws on archival U.S. and European primary sources and incorporates the latest research from the US, British, French and Spanish archives, as well as newspapers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Mexico. A highly original account of the United States' rise to power drawing on multilingual scholarship, this is an important book for all students and scholars of United States foreign relations up to the First World War. About the Author Piero Gleijeses is Professor of American Foreign Policy in the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, USA.Thomas Zeiler is Professor of American Diplomatic History at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA.

During the final fifteen years of the Cold War, southern Africa underwent a period of upheaval, with dramatic twists and turns in relations between the superpowers. Americans, Cubans, Soviets, and Africans fought over the future of Angola, where tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers were stationed, and over the decolonization of Namibia, Africa's last colony. Beyond lay the great prize: South Africa. Piero Gleijesesuses archival sources, particularly from the United States, South Africa, and the closed Cuban archives, to provide an unprecedented international history of this important theater of the late Cold War. These sources all point to one conclusion: by humiliating the United States and defying the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro changed the course of history in southern Africa. It was Cuba's victory in Angola in 1988 that forced Pretoria to set Namibia free and helped break the back of apartheid South Africa. In the words of Nelson Mandela, the Cubans "destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor . . . [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa."

Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991 (New Cold War History)

University of North Carolina Press

Reflecting on Cuba’s unique foreign policy—both its meaning and its legacy—and how Cuba has adjusted to a world dominated by the United States, Piero Gleijeses asserts in The Cuban Drumbeat that it has been a policy without equal in modern times. During the cold war, extra-continental military interventions were the preserve of the two superpowers, a few West European countries, and Cuba. Gleijeses documents how the rest of the world was regularly stunned by Cuba’s massive uses of force, including the 1975–76 dispatch of 36,000 Cuban soldiers to Angola to repel a South African invasion, the 12,000 Cuban soldiers sent to Ethiopia in 1978 to help defeat a Somali invasion, and the 55,000 Cuban soldiers present in Angola by 1988. Even the Soviet Union sent far fewer troops beyond its immediate borders in those years than did Cuba. 
The Cuban Drumbeat describes how the cold war framed three decades of Castro’s revolutionary zeal; but, Gleijeses argues, Castro’s vision was always larger than the cold war. For Castro, the battle against imperialism—his raison d’être—is more than the struggle against the United States: it is the war against despair and oppression in the Third World—a war that continues even though the future of Castro’s policies is uncertain.

The Cuban Drumbeat (What Was Communism?)

Seagull Books

Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, Pretoria

Galago Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gleijeses, Piero. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gleijeses, Piero

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gleijeses, Piero. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954

Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954

Secret History: The C.I.A.'s Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954

Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976

Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976

America's Road to Empire: Foreign Policy from Independence to World War One (New Approaches to International History)

America's Road to Empire: Foreign Policy from Independence to World War One (New Approaches to International History)

Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991 (New Cold War History)

The Cuban Drumbeat (What Was Communism?)

Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, Pretoria