The American Spectator : Consolidating Castro

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Consolidating Castro

By James R. Whelan on 12.16.05 @ 12:05AM

Thanks to the Kennedy brothers, it's always been personal between the U.S. and Fidel.

p> strong> em> The Castro Obsession : br> U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959-1965 /em> br> By Don Bohning br> (Potomac Books, 307 pages, $29.95) /strong> /p>

Don Bohning is an old-fashioned reporter. That doesn't mean he is without opinions or biases, and maybe even a prejudice or two. But it does mean that in his long years as a successful reporter -- mainly for the Miami Herald -- Don felt duty-bound to keep his opinions to himself and to tell the truth as fully, factually, and responsibly as he could.

He has done just that in this, his first book.

That reporting leads (on page 255) to this chilling, and on the evidence so impressively amassed by Bohning, incontrovertible conclusion:

"The legacy of the unsuccessful six-year secret war against Fidel Castro -- a legacy that belongs mostly to the Kennedy brothers -- is not an admirable one. Among the war's main negative consequences were the consolidation of Castro's hold on Cuba, contributing to the Soviet decision to install offensive missiles on the island and spawning a cadre of Cuban exile terrorists perpetrating murder and mayhem far in excess of their relatively small numbers."

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About the Author

James R. Whelan's books include Out of the Ashes: Life, Death and Transfiguration of Democracy in Chile, 1833-1988. He has reported on the country since 1958, and served 1992-1995 as visiting professor at the University of Chile. He presently lives in Santiago.