Visions of Freedom
Havanna, Washington, Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa 1976-1991
- Publication Date: 2013
- Dimensions and Pages: 235 x 156 mm, 736 pp
- EAN: 978 1 86814 749 6
- Rights: Southern Africa
- Recommended Price (ZAR): 350.00
- Recommended Price (USD): n/a
During the final fifteen years of the Cold War, southern Africa underwent a period of upheaval, with dramatic twists and turns in relations between the superpowers. Americans, Cubans, Soviets and Africans fought over the future of Angola, where tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers were stationed, ready to decolonize Namibia, Africa’s last colony. Beyond lay the great prize: South Africa. Piero Gleijeses uses archival sources, particularly from the United States, South Africa, and the closed Cuban archive, to provide an unprecedented international history of this important theatre of the late Cold War.
These sources all point to one conclusion: by humiliating the United States and defying the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro changed the course of history in southern Africa. It was Cuba’s victory in Angola in 1988 that forced Pretoria to give Namibia its independence and helped break the back of apartheid South Africa. In the words of Nelson Mandela, the Cubans ‘destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor . . . [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa.’
Visions of Freedom tells a remarkable and sweeping history of Cuba’s role in assisting the so-called Third World from the clutches of white domination. Written with intrigue and insight, it will appeal to scholars of international politics, historians and the general reader interested in Southern African history.
With University of North Carolina Press
Rights: Southern Africa only
Prologue
Chapter 1. The Cuban Drumbeat
Chapter 2. Neto, Castro, and Carter: A new beginning
Chapter 3. The Cubans in Angola
Chapter 4. Strained Relations: Cuba and Angola
Chapter 5. The Fronts Harden: The United States and Cuba, 1978-1980
Chapter 6. Carter and Southern Africa: A balance sheet
Chapter 7. Enter Reagan
Chapter 8. The Wonders of Linkage
Chapter 9. Angolan Travails
Chapter 10. The Failure of Lusaka
Chapter 11. The United States, South Africa, and Savimbi
Chapter 12. The View from Cuba, 1984-1986
Chapter 13. Havana and Moscow: Conflicting Strategies
Chpater 14. Negotiations in the Offi ng?
Chapter 15. Cuito Cuanavale
Chapter 16. Maniobra XXXI Aniversario
Chapter 17. Chester Crocker Meets Jorge Risquet: Talks about Talks
Chapter 18. The Negotiations
Chapter 19. The New York Agreements
Chapter 20. Visions of Freedom