Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat's Chronicle of America's Long Struggle with Castro's Cuba
A top US diplomat's compelling memoir of her years in Cuba and the tumultuous relationship between the two countries: "Unparalleled insight." --Culture Trip
After the US embassy in Havana was closed in 1961, relations between the countries broke off. A thaw came in 1977 with the opening of a de facto embassy in Havana, the US Interests Section--where Vicki Huddleston would later serve under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.
In her memoir of a diplomat at work, she tells gripping stories of face-to-face encounters with Fidel Castro and the initiatives she undertook, like the transistor radios she furnished to ordinary Cubans. Along with inside accounts of dramatic episodes such as the Elián González custody battle, Huddleston also evokes the charm of the island country and her warm affection for the Cuban people.
Uniquely qualified to explain the inner workings of US-Cuba relations, Huddleston examines the Obama administration's diplomatic opening of 2014, the mysterious "sonic" brain and hearing injuries suffered by US and Canadian diplomats serving in Havana, and the rescinding of the diplomatic opening under the Trump administration. She recounts missed opportunities for détente, and the myths, misconceptions, and lies that have long pervaded US-Cuba relations. Our Woman in Havana is essential reading for everyone interested in Cuba, including the thousands of Americans visiting the island every year, as well as policymakers and observers who study the stormy relationship with our near neighbor.
"Anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of policy-making in Washington, and any young foreign service officer intrigued by worldly adventures will thoroughly enjoy." --Ambassador Joseph Wilson, author of The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity
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Few on this side of the Florida Straits know Cuba better than Vicki Huddleston . . . She has written an extraordinary firsthand account and one that only an intrepid diplomat-- serving both Republican and Democratic presidents--could have experienced, and written.--Ann Louise Bardach, author of Cuba Confidential and Without Fidel
During her time as the highest-ranking diplomat in Cuba, Vicki Huddleston faced down Fidel Castro at a party, provided thousands of otherwise isolated people with a way to learn more about the outside world, and won awards with an Afghan hound she named after the city of Havana--all while few women held positions of power within the State Department. . . . She's now on another diplomatic mission: to warn America about the danger of US policy towards Cuba. . . . Her memoir serves as a primer on recent history and points to bad omens of the past threatening to repeat themselves.
Our Woman in Havana is a brilliant account of a diplomat's challenges in formulating a sound policy consensus amid the shifting sands of domestic political, economic, and familial interests in Washington, Miami, and Havana. It is also an inspiring foreign service story of a diplomat abroad, charged with providing information and advice to Washington while advancing US policy objectives in an often hostile environment. . . . Anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of policy-making in Washington, and any young foreign service officer intrigued by worldly adventures will thoroughly enjoy Our Woman in Havana, written by one of this generation's finest diplomats."--Ambassador Joseph Wilson, author of The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity
