Book review

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.11.2.0360
• Pages: 360-361
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Author: Gary Prevost

360 book rEVIEWS

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 11.2 WInter 2019

Vicki Huddleston, Our Woman in Havana (New York: Overlook Press,

2018), hb 304 pp. ISBN: 9781468315790

Reviewed by Gary Prevost1

Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, head of the US Interests Section in Havana from

1999 to 2002, has written an interesting memoir that should be read by all

scholars interested in US-Cuban relations and the practice of international diplo-

macy. The author is a retired US Foreign Service Officer, and publication of her

book is clearly timed to the reversal of the US opening to Cuba by US President

Donald Trump. Huddleston is clearly committed to engagement rather than

confrontation and therefore is sharply critical of the path chosen by the current

administration in Washington. The basis of her opposition to the Trump admin-

istration’s return to a hard line against Cuba is grounded in the fact that she was

basically forced from her position in 2002 after trying to maintain the Clinton

administration’s policy of engagement in the early days of the Bush administra-

tion. Her tenure in Havana ended when President George W. Bush ultimately

sided with neo-conservatives and Cuban American hardliners and moved US

policy on the island to a confrontational one under her successor, James Cason;

a policy shift that, she notes, failed miserably in its stated objective of regime

change in Havana. The real strength of her book lies in details she provides on

how the ultimate policy shifts came about in spite of her good faith efforts to

continue dialogue with Cuban authorities, while at the same time stepping up US

involvement with political opponents of the Cuban government. The book also

provides some interesting details on the ongoing efforts of Cuban authorities to

monitor the activities of the US diplomats, though she is not able to shed any

particular light on the current ‘sonic attack’ issue.

Near the beginning of her time in Havana, she had to manage a solution to the

Elián González affairs, the Cuban boy picked up at sea who became the subject of

an international custody battle between Cuban authorities and sections of the

Cuban American community in Florida. Since on this issue the Cuban and US

governments were on the same side, arguing for the return of Elián to Cuba, what

became clear to Huddleston was the degree to which she and the State Department

had to dialogue with Cuban American politicians on what should have been a

fairly straightforward return of the boy to Cuba, but which ultimately took several

months. From there forward she details how, on several occasions, she had to

meet as head of the Interests Section with Cuban American politicians who were

1 Gary Prevost is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Latin American Studies,

College of St Benedict, St John’s University.