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Description of  Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana

Challenging the conventional wisdom of perpetual hostility between the United States and Cuba beyond invasions, covert operations, assassination plots using poison pens and exploding seashells, and a grinding economic embargo this fascinating book chronicles a surprising, untold history of bilateral efforts toward rapprochement and reconciliation. Since 1959, conflict and aggression have dominated the story of U.S.-Cuban relations. Now, LeoGrande and Kornbluh present a new and increasingly more relevant account. From Kennedy's offering of an olive branch to Castro after the missile crisis, to Kissinger's top secret quest for normalization, to Obama's promise of a "new approach," LeoGrande and Kornbluh reveal a fifty-year record of dialogue and negotiations, both open and furtive, indicating a path toward better relations in the future.