Brian Latell
Auteur de After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader
A propos de l'auteur
Brian Latell is the author of After Fidel, which has been published in eight languages. He began tracking the Castro brothers for the CIA in the 1960s. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Miami Herald, and The Washington Quarterly. Currently senior afficher plus research associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, he previously taught for a quarter century at Georgetown University. He lives in Lancaster, Virginia. afficher moins
Œuvres de Brian Latell
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- Brian Latell began tracking Cuba for the CIA in the early 1960s. Today, as Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, he continues as one of the most distinguished and frequently quoted experts. For a quarter century he taught Cuba and Latin America as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. A former National Intelligence Officer for Latin America and Director of the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence, he has written for the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal, Time, and many other American and international publications. His After Fidel has been published in eight languages.
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After Fidel par Brian Latell
From the details in this biography, I found myself constantly thinking of Fidel as a person with a mental illness.
Cette critique a été écrite dans le cadre des Critiques en avant-première de LibraryThing.In Castro's Secrets, Brian Latell, former CIA agent, describes the clandestine war between the United States and Cuba waged by the CIA and its anti-Castro Cuban auxiliaries and associates in organized crime against the intelligence service of the Castro regime. The spies and saboteurs on Castro's side were much better at their jobs, while those enlisted in the service of the CIA were often inept.
Only with the defection of high-ranking Cuban intelligence chiefs, such as Antonio "Tiny" Aspillaga in the late 1980s did the CIA gain an accurate window into the world of Cuban spycraft. Only then did the North Americans learn how badly they had been deceived and manipulated by Cuban double agents and false leads over the years. Aspillaga also provided missing pieces in the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, such as the so-called "Armageddon letter", a message from Fidel Castro to Premier Khruschev demanding that he unleash the Soviet nuclear arsenal against the United States if the Yankees invaded his island.
In Latell's account, the Castro regime was well aware of the campaign of small raids to sabotage crops, transportation links, factories and other facilities and to infiltrate agents and guerillas into Cuba. Some of these activities crossed the line into terrorism, and most of them constituted acts of war, so they were, of course, disavowed by the U.S. government. Castro was also well-informed of CIA plots on his life. These plots sound like they were inspired by Ian Fleming's James Bond but hatched under the influence of Timothy Leary's LSD.
Latell writes that the Cuban regime knew about Lee Harvey Oswald but apparently didn't regard him as having much potential in their service. He made a trip to Mexico City in the autumn of 1963 and demanded to be admitted to the Cuban consulate. He spoke of his devotion to Fidel and brandished documents showing his membership in Fair Play for Cuba committees in Dallas and New Orleans and news clippings from those cities, but the consulate guards still wouldn't let him in. Frustrated and hurt, he stormed off but shouted something to the effect of "I'm going to shoot Kennedy when he comes to Dallas!"
According to Latell, Aspillaga says the consulate took note of Oswald's outburst. He was still a young spy in training in 1963. One of his duties was to monitor Voice of America and CIA broadcasts from Florida, but he claims that on the morning of November 22, 1963 he was instructed to drop all that and focus exclusively on commercial broadcasting from Texas.
Latell states that there is no evidence that Castro had a hand in the assassination of President Kennedy, but he suggests that the Cuban leader knew of Oswald's threat to the President's life and failed to warn him. But how credible was Oswald and was it Castro's responsibility to warn Kennedy? Given that the FBI had a file on Oswald and didn't see fit to share it with the Secret Service, we can hardly blame Fidel Castro, a target of our assassination plots, for not warning JFK.
Latell's book is entitled Castro's Secrets, but it might more aptly be named The CIA's Secrets. He speculates that President Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy must have known and approved of the clandestine operations against Cuba, but that is by no means certain. It's entirely possible the Agency conducted the most sensitive operations without Presidential authorization for the sake of plausible deniability. After the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy would never again place complete trust in his intelligence chiefs. And after the Cuban Missile Crisis it seems highly unlikely that he would promote any action that would risk going to war over Cuba and violating the deal he had made with Khruschev to avert World War III.
We must extend Latell the benefit of the doubt, but the CIA is in the business of deception, as is the Cuban intelligence service. While the clandestine war may be less bloody as the Castro brothers approach the end of their lives, by natural means, there is still a state of conflict between the United States and Cuba that makes objective accounting difficult. Twenty or thirty years hence, it may be possible to collect enough factual evidence to create an accurate account.… (plus d'informations)
Only with the defection of high-ranking Cuban intelligence chiefs, such as Antonio "Tiny" Aspillaga in the late 1980s did the CIA gain an accurate window into the world of Cuban spycraft. Only then did the North Americans learn how badly they had been deceived and manipulated by Cuban double agents and false leads over the years. Aspillaga also provided missing pieces in the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, such as the so-called "Armageddon letter", a message from Fidel Castro to Premier Khruschev demanding that he unleash the Soviet nuclear arsenal against the United States if the Yankees invaded his island.
In Latell's account, the Castro regime was well aware of the campaign of small raids to sabotage crops, transportation links, factories and other facilities and to infiltrate agents and guerillas into Cuba. Some of these activities crossed the line into terrorism, and most of them constituted acts of war, so they were, of course, disavowed by the U.S. government. Castro was also well-informed of CIA plots on his life. These plots sound like they were inspired by Ian Fleming's James Bond but hatched under the influence of Timothy Leary's LSD.
Latell writes that the Cuban regime knew about Lee Harvey Oswald but apparently didn't regard him as having much potential in their service. He made a trip to Mexico City in the autumn of 1963 and demanded to be admitted to the Cuban consulate. He spoke of his devotion to Fidel and brandished documents showing his membership in Fair Play for Cuba committees in Dallas and New Orleans and news clippings from those cities, but the consulate guards still wouldn't let him in. Frustrated and hurt, he stormed off but shouted something to the effect of "I'm going to shoot Kennedy when he comes to Dallas!"
According to Latell, Aspillaga says the consulate took note of Oswald's outburst. He was still a young spy in training in 1963. One of his duties was to monitor Voice of America and CIA broadcasts from Florida, but he claims that on the morning of November 22, 1963 he was instructed to drop all that and focus exclusively on commercial broadcasting from Texas.
Latell states that there is no evidence that Castro had a hand in the assassination of President Kennedy, but he suggests that the Cuban leader knew of Oswald's threat to the President's life and failed to warn him. But how credible was Oswald and was it Castro's responsibility to warn Kennedy? Given that the FBI had a file on Oswald and didn't see fit to share it with the Secret Service, we can hardly blame Fidel Castro, a target of our assassination plots, for not warning JFK.
Latell's book is entitled Castro's Secrets, but it might more aptly be named The CIA's Secrets. He speculates that President Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy must have known and approved of the clandestine operations against Cuba, but that is by no means certain. It's entirely possible the Agency conducted the most sensitive operations without Presidential authorization for the sake of plausible deniability. After the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy would never again place complete trust in his intelligence chiefs. And after the Cuban Missile Crisis it seems highly unlikely that he would promote any action that would risk going to war over Cuba and violating the deal he had made with Khruschev to avert World War III.
We must extend Latell the benefit of the doubt, but the CIA is in the business of deception, as is the Cuban intelligence service. While the clandestine war may be less bloody as the Castro brothers approach the end of their lives, by natural means, there is still a state of conflict between the United States and Cuba that makes objective accounting difficult. Twenty or thirty years hence, it may be possible to collect enough factual evidence to create an accurate account.… (plus d'informations)
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ChuckNorton | 12 autres critiques | Nov 27, 2013 |
ChuckNorton | 12 autres critiques | Nov 27, 2013 | Cette critique a été écrite dans le cadre des Critiques en avant-première de LibraryThing.I've never done any looking into the Kennedy assassination previously, I'd simply heard the same bits and pieces everyone hears growing up. So this book was incredibly enlightening to a whole world of stuff I didn't know about. It also went nicely in hand with a previous Early Reviews book I read about the American propaganda war against Cuba. The two of them together give a very informed picture of what went on in those days.
It's stunning how much information has come to light in recent years, and that it's still being ignored by most people. Brian Latell did a great job at painting a clear picture, providing witness accounts and bits pulled from the declassified files.… (plus d'informations)
It's stunning how much information has come to light in recent years, and that it's still being ignored by most people. Brian Latell did a great job at painting a clear picture, providing witness accounts and bits pulled from the declassified files.… (plus d'informations)
Cette critique a été écrite dans le cadre des Critiques en avant-première de LibraryThing.This book tells how badly the CIA underestimated the abilities and talents of Cuba and their spy networks. The CIA wrongly assumed that the Cubans were not capable of a highly complex and multi-faceted operation to spy and run agents. The information is based on a few people that were highly placed in the Cuban version of the CIA who defected and some de-classified CIA documents. It was written by an ex CIA analyst who started tracking the Castro brothers since 1960.
The books discusses the CIA knowledge of how Castro came into power, the means Castro used to try to over throw certain South American countries to make them communist countries, how Castro used fear and intimidation to rule. It also tells how much Castro and the Kennedy brothers hated each other and the means they used to try to get rid of Castro.
This book gives a good explanation of how and why Cuba always knew what was being planned and how the CIA was fooled into thinking that Cuba didn't have the networks for spying.
A really good read!… (plus d'informations)
The books discusses the CIA knowledge of how Castro came into power, the means Castro used to try to over throw certain South American countries to make them communist countries, how Castro used fear and intimidation to rule. It also tells how much Castro and the Kennedy brothers hated each other and the means they used to try to get rid of Castro.
This book gives a good explanation of how and why Cuba always knew what was being planned and how the CIA was fooled into thinking that Cuba didn't have the networks for spying.
A really good read!… (plus d'informations)
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 5
- Membres
- 201
- Popularité
- #109,507
- Évaluation
- 3.8
- Critiques
- 15
- ISBN
- 23
- Langues
- 2
