| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 221 words from this article are provided below; about 358 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976. By Piero Gleijeses. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. xx, 552 pp. $34.95, ISBN 0-8078-2647-2.)

This excellent book reads in some ways as traditional diplomatic history, with pages full of U.S. government officials producing and debating documents while people such as Henry Kissinger dictate policy. Yet Piero Gleijeses offers far more, for the chapters are filled with the thoughts and actions of a vast array of actors, most notably Cuban volunteers from the battlefields of Africa, who were intimately involved with the events at hand. Indeed, Gleijeses has undertaken inordinate amounts of research for this book, including over 150 oral interviews and archival research from throughout the Atlantic world. 1

The book focuses on the Cuban presence in Africa from the Cuban revolution through the successful deployment to protect the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government in Angola. Fidel Castro began sending military material, and then later medical workers and soldiers, to Africa in 1961. Algeria received the first aid, and Gleijeses emphasizes the logical, even natural, ties between Cuba and African nations as they struggled for and then sought to maintain their independence. Ensuing years brought forays into Zanzibar, the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, and, most significant, the Congo/Zaire in the mid-1960s and Angola in the mid-1970s. . . .

There are about 358 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.