Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat's Chronicle of America's Long Struggle with Castro's Cuba

by Vicki Huddleston, Carlos Gutierrez (Foreword by)

Overview

A top US diplomat’s compelling memoir of her years in Cuba and the tumultuous relationship between the two countries: “Unparalleled insight.” —Culture Trip
 
After the US embassy in Havana was closed in 1961, relations between the countries broke off. A thaw came in 1977 with the opening of a de facto embassy in Havana, the US Interests Section—where Vicki Huddleston would later serve under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.
 
In her memoir of a diplomat at work, she tells gripping stories of face-to-face encounters with Fidel Castro and the initiatives she undertook, like the transistor radios she furnished to ordinary Cubans. Along with inside accounts of dramatic episodes such as the Elián González custody battle, Huddleston also evokes the charm of the island country and her warm affection for the Cuban people.
 
Uniquely qualified to explain the inner workings of US-Cuba relations, Huddleston examines the Obama administration’s diplomatic opening of 2014, the mysterious “sonic” brain and hearing injuries suffered by US and Canadian diplomats serving in Havana, and the rescinding of the diplomatic opening under the Trump administration. She recounts missed opportunities for détente, and the myths, misconceptions, and lies that have long pervaded US-Cuba relations. Our Woman in Havana is essential reading for everyone interested in Cuba, including the thousands of Americans visiting the island every year, as well as policymakers and observers who study the stormy relationship with our near neighbor.
 
“Anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of policy-making in Washington, and any young foreign service officer intrigued by worldly adventures will thoroughly enjoy.” —Ambassador Joseph Wilson, author of The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468315806
Publisher:	ABRAMS, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	295
Sales rank:	782,711
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ambassador Vicki Huddleston served under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush as Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. She also served as U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar and Mali. Her report for the Brookings Institution about normalizing relations with Cuba was adapted for President Obama's diplomatic opening with Raúl Castro in 2014. She has written opinion pieces in the New York Times, Miami Herald, and Washington Post. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Table of Contents

Foreword 7

Prologue 11

Part I 1989-1993: Cuban Affairs, US State Department; Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton 17

1 I Am the Director of Cuban Affairs 19

2 The Legacy of Terror for Cubans and Americans 35

Part II 1999-2000: US Interests Section, Havana; President Bill Clinton 47

3 Our Woman in Havana 49

4 A Provocation 61

5 Fidel Is Cuba 73

6 The Last Battle 85

7 Fidel's Last Hurrah 103

Part III 2001-2002: US Interests Section; President George W. Bush 119

8 Regime Change: Ours 121

9 From Fidel with Love 135

10 Havana, My Afghan Hound 149

11 The Best of Enemies: Guantanamo Naval Base 167

12 Fidel's Charm Offensive 183

13 My Little Radios 201

14 The President and the Dissident 219

15 Mr. W. versus Mr. Castro 231

Part IV 2002 and Beyond 245

16 Myths, Contradictions, and Lies: Bush, Obama, and Trump 247

17 The Future Is Havana, Not Miami 265

Epilogue 287

Notes 292

Bibliography 302

Acknowledgments 304

Editorial Reviews

Few on this side of the Florida Straits know Cuba better than Vicki Huddleston . . . She has written an extraordinary firsthand account and one that only an intrepid diplomat—
serving both Republican and Democratic presidents—could have experienced, and written.

Ann Louise Bardach

As someone who has lived most of my life in Miami, and who has seen the effect of US policy toward Cuba up close and very personal, I found Our Woman in Havana to be a remarkable inside account of the real news that was behind the headlines I’ve followed for years. As a bookseller, I know this book will be enthusiastically embraced by my customers and I look forward to offering it to them.””

Mitchell Kaplan

Our Woman in Havana is a brilliant account of a diplomat’s challenges in formulating a sound policy consensus amid the shifting sands of domestic political, economic, and familial interests in Washington, Miami, and Havana. It is also an inspiring foreign service story of a diplomat abroad, charged with providing information and advice to Washington while advancing US policy objectives in an often hostile environment. . . . Anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of policy-making in Washington, and any young foreign service officer intrigued by worldly adventures will thoroughly enjoy Our Woman in Havana, written by one of this generation’s finest diplomats.””

Ambassador Joseph Wilson

As one of America’s top Cuba hands, Huddleston has been a privileged eyewitness to key moments of history as well as backroom policy debates. Huddleston’s anecdotes of her life in Havana—everything from spy stories to an argument with Fidel she had at a cocktail party—are sometimes poignant, at other times hilarious, and always delightfully candid.

Jon Lee Anderson

Offering unparalleled insight from [Huddleston's] almost 20 years as ambassador,Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cubareflects on politics and sexism in a changing global landscape.”

Culture Trip

During her time as the highest-ranking diplomat in Cuba, Vicki Huddleston faced down Fidel Castro at a party, provided thousands of otherwise isolated people with a way to learn more about the outside world, and won awards with an Afghan hound she named after the city of Havana—all while few women held positions of power within the State Department. . . . She's now on another diplomatic mission: to warn America about the danger of US policy towards Cuba. . . .Her memoir serves as a primer on recent history and points to bad omens of the past threatening to repeat themselves.

Santa Fe Reporter