US-Cuba Relations: Past, Present, and Future

February 27, 2015 - 4:00 PM

The discussion will draw heavily from LeoGrande & Kornbluh‘s book Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana (The University of North Carolina Press, 2014). This volume offers new insights into the conversations and negotiations for normalization, mostly secret, between the two countries for the past fifty years. The authors have uncovered hundreds of formerly secret U.S. documents and conducted interviews with dozens of negotiators, intermediaries, and policy makers, including Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter. It is an essential source to explore background and significance of ongoing negotiations.

Speakers:

William LeoGrande, American University

Peter Kornbluh, National Security Archive

Moderator:

Mauricio Font, Graduate Center and Queens College, CUNY

leogrande_portraitWilliam LeoGrande (Ph.D., Syracuse University) is Professor of Government and a specialist in Latin American politics and U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America. He has written five books, including Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992 (The University of North Carolina Press, 2000). Most recently, he is co-author of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana (The University of North Carolina Press, 2014).

bio_peterPeter Kornbluh is a senior analyst at the National Security Archive in Washington, author of the books Bay of Pigs Declassified (New Press, 1998) and The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 (New Press, 1999), and co-author (with William M. LeoGrande) of the book, Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana (The University of North Carolina Press, 2014).
 
 

MfontAs founder and director of the Cuba Project, Professor Mauricio Font has played a leading role in the academic and intellectual dialogue on Cuba for the past 20 years. His latest publications on Cuba include the co-edited volumes: Handbook of Contemporary Cuba: Economy, Politics, Civil Society, and Globalization (Paradigm Press, 2013), Handbook on Cuban History, Literature, and the Arts (Paradigm Press, 2014).