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The Long Night of Dark Intent: A Half Century of Cuban Communism book cover

1st Edition

The Long Night of Dark Intent A Half Century of Cuban Communism

By Irving Horowitz Copyright 2008
    622 Pages
    by Routledge

    622 Pages
    by Routledge

    The Cuban Revolution of 1959 was a benchmark of triumph and a harbinger of tragedy to come. Rather than herald a new era of Cuba joining the world community of nations as a paragon of democracy as many fervently hoped and believed it would, it became instead a new stage in authoritarian rule in the Western hemisphere.

    For more than a half century since then Cuba has been defined by the capacity of a single family to command and determine the fate of a nation—and to do so with a minimum of opposition. Incredibly, even those professing adhesion to democratic norms have been ready to forgive the dictator his excesses. This volume explains the theory and practice of this absence of internal opposition and the persistence of external support for the Castro family and its entourage.

    The Long Night of Dark Intent is chronological in order, with the author indicating major points in each of the five decades covered. The volume covers five centers of system analysis: economics, politics, society, military, and ideology. Who or what "determines" events and decisions is the stuff of real history. It is precisely due to variability in causal chains in society that we have huge variance in levels of predictability. The course of the Cuban Revolution gives strong support for such an approach to the Castro Era. This is a unique, unflinching account with a strong emphasis on the importance of U.S. policy decisions over time.

    1960s: Guerrilla Dictatorship. 1 Th e Stalinization of Fidel Castro 2 Castrologists and Apologists: True Belief in 18 the Service of False Sentiment 3 Cuban Communism and Marxist Revisionism 4 The Missile Crisis: A Decade in United States- Cuban Relations. 1970s: Consolidation of Communism 5 United States Policy toward Cuba in a Latin Context 6 Capitalism, Communism, and Multinationalism 7 Th e Militarization of Guerrilla Communism 8 Military Origins of the Cuban Revolution 9 Ideological Euphoria and Post-Revolutionary Cuba 10 Authenticity and Autonomy in Cuban Communism 11 Institutionalized Militarism of Cuba 12 The Cuba Lobby: Supplying Rope to a Mortgaged Revolution 13 Institutionalization as Integration: The Cuban Revolution at Age Twenty. 1980s: Militarization of the Regime 14 C. Wright Mills and Listen, Yankee 15 The Role of Cuba in the Pacification of Central America 16 Fidel’s “Soft” Stalinism. 1990s: Regionalization and Retreat. 17 Small Nation, Global Pretensions: Fidel Castro Redux 18 Revolution, Longevity, and Legitimacy in Communist States 19 The Dictator Who Would Be King 20 New Beginnings and Familiar Endings 21 Totalitarian Options in a Post-Communist World 22 American Foreign Policy toward Castro: Paradox, Procrastination, and Paralysis 23 The Conscience of Castrologists 24 Social Science as an Instrument of Democratic Struggle 25 Th e Cuban Revolution: Th e Myth of Theory and the Theory of Myths 26 Consequences of the American Embargo 27 On Socialist Economics and Communist Politics 28 The Jewish Experience in Cuba 29 Castro and the End of Ideology 30 Military Autonomy and Dependency in Castro’s Cuba 31 Cuban Models and Democratic Choices 32 Endless Celebrations for an Old Dictator 33 Reality Avoidance and Political Pilgrimage 34 Three Points of Light: Long Term U.S. Policy, Responses to Cuba 35 Cuba Lobby Upgrade: Plus ça Change, Plus C’est la Même Chose 36 The Cuban Embargo and the American Interest 2000s: Dissolution of Political Power 37 Th e Two Cubas of Elián González 38 Cuba after Castro: The Historical Limits to Dictatorship 39 Humanitarian Capitulation 40 One Hundred Years of Ambiguity: U.S.-Cuba Relations in the 20th Century 41 The Conflict between Economy and Ideology in Cuban Communism 42 Transition Scenarios for a Post-Castro Cuba: Speaking Loudly but Carrying a Small Stick 43 Castro’s Corn: Petroleum and Globalization 44 Rocky Shoals of Reform: Castro and the Caudillo 45 Cuba, Castro, and Anti-Semitism 46 Semper Fidel 47 Mi Vida: Th e Manichean Face of Dictatorship

    Biography

    Irving Louis Horowitz is Hannah Arendt Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey. The author served on the executive advisory board of the U.S. Information Agency for Radio/TV Marti, 1978-90 and was a special consultant to the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America in 1984. In 1994 he was the Bacardi Visiting Professor at the University of Miami. With Jaime Suchlicki, he has edited eleven editions of what has come to be known as the bible of Cuban Studies, Cuban Communism.

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