An authority on the life and works of Serge Prokofiev charts the sad biographical arc of his wife, Lina, who spent some devastating years in the Soviet gulag. Born in Madrid in 1897, Lina was talented. She knew a half dozen languages and sang well enough to perform in some impressive venues—sometimes with her far more talented and celebrated husband.

Morrison (Music History/Princeton Univ.; The People’s Artist: Prokofiev’s Soviet Years, 2009), who had access to the family and significant archival collections, has produced a gripping story of a young woman’s rise into the highest social and musical circles, her marriage to Prokofiev (whose principal affection was for his music, not his family), and their globe-trotting tours and swelling celebrity.

But as the Stalin-led Soviet Union commenced its multiple atrocities and outrages, the Prokofievs’ world shrank, their travels were limited and their futures were tightly circumscribed. Morrison shows how the composer gradually wearied of his family and walked out on them in 1941 (for a younger woman) and did little to protect them from the government. Lina—perhaps naïve, perhaps careless—drew the attention of the security services, which arrested her in 1948. She spent eight years in the gulag, a period that is most painful to read about. In all their odiousness, the author relates the interrogations, deprivations, torture and the unrelenting suffering of Lina and many others.

When Stalin died and the government slightly softened under Khrushchev, Lina was eventually released and returned to Moscow (Serge had died three years earlier), where she eked out a living until, inexplicably, the authorities allowed her to leave, and she spent her final years in Paris and London, where she died at the age of 91 in 1989. Research, compassion and outrage combine in a story both riveting and wrenching.

Pub Date : 19/03/2013
ISBN : 978-0547391311
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online : Dec. 2nd, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue : Dec. 15th, 2012
Author : Simon Morrison

Jarrow’s engrossing biography should bring Robert H. Jackson some well-deserved attention. Ample detail about his childhood years provides insight into his later character. An excellent speaker, a law career seemed perfect, but Jackson couldn’t afford higher education. Instead, he passed the bar after a brief law course and an apprenticeship.

Jackson held various government positions during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, culminating in an appointment to the Supreme Court. At the close of World War II, Jackson was tapped to be the chief prosecutor for the Nuremberg Trial, where his wisdom, eloquent speaking ability and legal knowledge played a key role in the successful prosecution of the first 22 defendants.

Returning to the Supreme Court, he wrote several still-cited opinions. Excellent as a biography, this work also provides inside information about the Supreme Court and an interesting look at the Nuremberg Trial, an area that receives little coverage in juvenile literature. Myriad period photographs with informative captions round out this excellent offering. An outstanding addition to most collections. (timeline, source notes, bibliography, index, picture credits).

Pub Date : 01/06/2008
ISBN : 978-1-59078-511-9
Publisher : Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online : May 20th, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue : May 15th, 2008
Author : Gail Jarrow

An instructive, vigorous account of FDR’s attempt at court-packing, and the chief justice who weathered the storm with equanimity. Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) isn’t one of the more studied justices, though he presided over the Supreme Court during the historic New Deal era, and enjoyed a long, fascinating career, as Simon (Emeritus/New York Law School, Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney, 2006, etc.) develops in depth. An adored only son of a minister who expected his son to pursue the ministry, Hughes went instead into law, eventually setting up a lucrative practice on Wall Street.

He first gained an intellectually rigorous, high-minded reputation by taking on the utilities industry in New York; courted by the Republican party, he was elected governor, and first appointed to the Supreme Court by President Taft in 1910, only to resign to run for president in 1916, a campaign lost in favor of Woodrow Wilson. After serving as Secretary of State under President Harding, he was reappointed to the highest bench by President Hoover, this time as Chief Justice in 1930. Yet he proved to be no cardboard pro-business model, and when FDR was elected amid economic mayhem during the Great Depression, the court was split.

FDR’s emergency legislature during his 100 first days was challenged by the conservatives, precipitating one of FDR’s worst blunders: a court reform proposal sent to Congress that would increase the number of justices and force retirement for the septuagenarians—as most of them were. “Shrieks of outrage” greeted the dictatorial proposal, which was resoundingly rejected by the Senate. However, Simon looks carefully at the change in court direction with the threats of reform, along with Hughes’ own sense of consternation and later important decisions in the protection of civil rights—e.g., Gaines v. Canada. A fair assessment of Hughes’ eminent career and an accessible, knowledgeable consideration of the important lawsuits of the era.

Pub Date : 07/02/2012
ISBN : 978-1-4165-7328-9
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online : Oct. 23rd, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue : Nov. 15th, 2011
Author : James F. Simon

Marion Price Daniel, Sr., né le 10 octobre 1910, décédé le 25 août 1988, était un homme politique américain du parti Démocrate. Il fut le 38e gouverneur du Texas du 15 janvier 1957 au 15 janvier 1963.

James Edward Ferguson, né le 31 août 1871 et mort le 21 septembre 1944 est un homme politique démocrate américain. Il est le 26e gouverneur du Texas entre 1915 et 1917. Plus tard, son épouse Miriam Ferguson devient la 29e et la 32e gouverneur du Texas (entre 1925 et 1927 puis entre 1933 et 1935), étant la deuxième femme à accéder à un tel poste aux États-Unis.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr (25 juillet 1915 - 12 août 1944) est un membre de la célèbre famille Kennedy des États-Unis, et le frère aîné du président John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Né le 25 juillet 1915 à Brookline (Massachusetts), il est le premier enfant de Joseph Patrick Kennedy et Rose Fitzgerald. Surnommé « Joe Jr », il est un brillant étudiant à Harvard, et il est dès son plus jeune âge « programmé » par son père pour devenir un jour président des États-Unis.

Lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, alors que son cadet (John Fitzgerald Kennedy, le futur président) vient d'être distingué pour ses faits d'armes dans le Pacifique, Joe Jr se porte volontaire pour participer à une mission expérimentale dont l'une des finalités est la destruction du V3, un canon géant devant tirer en continu des obus de 15 cm vers l'Angleterre. La cible avait déjà été bombardée, mais à cause d'un manque de coordination des différents services de renseignement, cette mission - alors inutile - aura bien lieu.

Le 12 août 1944, Joseph Kennedy Jr décolle à 17 h 52 à bord d'un B-24 Liberator pour une mission expérimentale pour laquelle il s'était porté volontaire, l'« opération Anvil » (« Enclume » ; le but est d'envoyer un bombardier télécommandé s'écraser avec une importante charge explosive contre une cible, mais le décollage doit être effectué par un pilote et un copilote qui sautent ensuite en parachute au dessus de l'Angleterre).

Vers 18 h 20, alors qu'il se prépare à évacuer l'appareil comme prévu, son avion, transformé en bombe volante (il transporte environ 11 000 kg d’explosif), explose au-dessus de Blythburgh (Angleterre). L'enquête de l'époque concluait qu'un problème électrique était à l'origine de la cause de la détonation des charges. Sa mort prématurée déterminera le destin politique de son frère cadet John, jusque là jeune homme plutôt dilettante et qui s'orientait vers une carrière de journaliste. Célibataire, Joe Jr ne laisse pas de descendance.

Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (10 juillet 1921 Brookline (Massachusetts) - 11 août 2009 Hyannis) est une des membres de la famille Kennedy et la fondatrice des Jeux olympiques spéciaux. Elle est la fille de Joseph Patrick Kennedy et de Rose Kennedy. Née à Brookline, dans le Massachusetts, elle est la cinquième de neuf enfants et l'une des sœurs de John Kennedy. Diplômée de l'université Stanford en 1944 d'un Bachelor of Arts in Social Science/Social Thought. Le 23 mai 1953, elle se marie avec Robert Sargent Shriver, qui est ambassadeur des États-Unis en France de 1968 à 1970 et candidat démocrate à la vice-présidence américaine en 1972.

Eunice Shriver s'implique activement dans la campagne de son frère ainé John Kennedy en 1960 et apporte son soutien à son gendre Arnold Schwarzenegger dans sa campagne pour devenir gouverneur de Californie en 2003. Elle est surtout connue aux États-Unis comme la fondatrice en 1968 du mouvement Special Olympics qui vient en aide par des activités sportives et de plein air aux handicapés mentaux et organise les Jeux olympiques spéciaux. À ce titre, elle est la seule femme américaine qui, de son vivant, est apparue sur une pièce des États-Unis, en 1995, sur le Special Olympics Silver Dollar. Eunice Shriver a grandi et vécu jusqu'à son décès dans une maison sur la propriété des Kennedy, à Hyannis sur le Cap Cod dans le Massachusetts.

Ils ont cinq enfants :

• Robert Sargent Shriver III, né en 1954
• Maria Owings Shriver, née en 1955, journaliste et ex-épouse d'Arnold Schwarzenegger, acteur et ancien gouverneur républicain de la Californie
• Timothy Perry Shriver, né en 1959
• Mark Kennedy Shriver, né en 1964, homme politique démocrate et ancien membre de la Chambre des Représentants
• Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver, né en 1965

James Patrick McGranery, né le 8 juillet 1895 et mort le 23 décembre 1963, est un juriste et démocrate américain ayant été représentant de Pennsylvanie de 1937 à 1943, date à laquelle MacGranery démissionna de son poste de représentant afin de devenir assistant du procureur général des États-Unis. Il deviendra à son tour procureur général des États-Unis de 1952 à 1953 dans l'administration Truman.

Introduced in this book is Englebert Dollfuss, the Austrian hero who plotted a course for Austria against Nazism, against Socialism, and against unbridled capitalism until his assassination by the Nazis in 1934. This is the story of the Austrian chancellor who attempted to act as a moral force to bring a divided, bankrupt, and bitter Europe to its senses. It details how he persuaded people of many different political persuasions to follow and support that policy, not through elegant speeches, worthless programs, and empty promises, but through common sense, good humor, overpowering honesty, and tremendous personal sacrifice.









 ISBN-13 : 9781605700038
Publisher : Ihs Press
Publication date : 01/12/2003
Author : Johannes Messner, John Zmirak (Introduction), Dr. Alice von Hildebrand (Foreword by)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“This little man happened to be fighting to keep one little corner of Germany still a part of Christendom.” —G. K. Chesterton, writing in the London Times

Meet the Author

Johannes Messner was a close colleague and friend of Chancellor Dollfuss. Dr. Alice von Hildebrand is the widow of the man who ran The Christian Corporative State, the newspaper officially commissioned by Dollfuss's publicity chief. Dr. John Zmirak is the author of Wilhelm Roepke. He contributes to such publications as Success, The Baton Rouge Business Report, Investor's Business Daily, and Faith and Family.

A well-balanced account of the Cuban leader's life and career, with a generous amount of background information and convincing explanations of Castro's several changes of image- -idealistic student revolutionary, romantic bandit chief, leader of the nonaligned nations, grizzled autocrat. Particularly effective is Brown's fair-minded presentation of Castro's populist measures and appeals to Cuban nationalism.

His rigidities and failures also get their full due, from antidemocratic politics at home to African involvements. Although the story has some exciting elements--e.g., the ``Alphabetizers'' literacy campaign--Brown keeps it at a general level, with few individual experiences (except for Castro's own) to enliven it. Well-placed b&w photos with informative captions; chronology; notes; bibliography; index.





Pub Date : 01/03/1994
ISBN : 1-56294-385-5
Publisher : Millbrook
Review Posted Online : June 24th, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue : Feb. 15th, 1994
Author : Warren Brown

El Comandante reveals himself to be a bit of a tree-hugger, a bit of a dreamer and a bit of a loner. Yet he’s always got a practical edge. Cuban leader (or dictator, depending on your take) Castro tells Spanish journalist Ramonet, a little circuitously, “There’s no such thing as dreamers, and you can take that from a dreamer who’s had the privilege of seeing realities that he was never even capable of dreaming.” One of those realities might well be having outlasted nearly every other leader on the planet, including ten U.S. presidents, a half-dozen Soviet and Russian premiers, a few popes and countless caudillos of the left and right. In this consistently engaging memoir, Castro is not inclined to gloat, perhaps aware that he has survived an estimated 600 assassination attempts.

(On that note, asked who did JFK in, Castro provides only watery fuel for the conspiracy buffs: “What the official version says is quite simply not possible—not just like that, bang bang bang.”) Elsewhere, he recounts how he acquired his toughness—in large measure, he reckons, from the Spanish Jesuits who taught him, and who “appreciate character, honesty, straightforwardness, uprightness, a person’s courage, his ability to make sacrifices.”

A comrade who shared those qualities, Castro recalls, was Che Guevara, who had a “tendency towards foolhardiness” but deserved every bit of his legend. Ranging broadly over nine decades without rambling, Castro addresses every question that Ramonet throws at him, from easy ones such as the reason for the beard to admirably tougher ones such as, “I’d like to ask you whether you think that the one-party structure isn’t ill-adapted to an increasingly complex society such as the Cuban society today.” The answers always come in the form of complete thoughts, a premium in political discourse these days. A book of great importance to anyone interested in contemporary history and current events.

Pub Date : 08/01/2008
ISBN : 978-1-4165-5328-1
Publisher : Scribner
Review Posted Online : June 24th, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue : Dec. 1st, 2007
Author : Fidel Castro, Ignacio Ramonet

A sprawling debut novel with a romance at its heart begins in Guyana before traveling to the United States, Thailand and Canada. In June 1975, teenage Abhi and his parents, recent immigrants to the United States, leave their home in New York City and return to Guyana for a family wedding. Abhi enjoys being an “instant celebrity” to his friends and family in the village but quickly realizes that only one person’s opinion matters; Pam, his former schoolmate, has blossomed into a gorgeous, intelligent young woman with a passion for cooking. Abhi’s parents decide to let him remain in Guyana for the summer, and he has a glorious time, falling in love with Pam all the while—but he returns to the United States without even kissing her.

Twenty years pass before Abhi and Pam see each other again; the novel chronicles their respective experiences growing up, building their careers and managing their families. Abhi struggles with the realization that his father, Tulsi, is a con man, and Pam makes the difficult decision to leave her elderly parents in Guyana to study electrical engineering in Miami. Their wildly different experiences over the years encompass everything from disco to investment banking to the dot-com boom—but Abhi and Pam never forget about each other, even though circumstances attempt to keep them apart. Once they finally reconnect, will they manage to make a life together? This ambitious first novel has an overly complicated structure; most of the narrative is told through third-person descriptions of Abhi’s and Pam’s lives, but periodic italicized sections written in the second person chronicle Abhi’s life in 2004 and 2005.

These sections also contain philosophical musings about new math, the meaning of existence and other grand topics; eliminating them might have tightened the story’s focus on Abhi and Pam. Persaud’s passion for travel shines through the novel, but his descriptions of exotic locations veer toward the florid; ocean waves, for example, are described as both “thunderous” and “pounding.” Pam’s character, although generally presented as smart and sensible, veers into incoherence once she leaves Guyana. At one point, she absently lets her American visa run out, and later, when Abhi loses his temper because another man shows interest in her, she expresses pleasure and says, “I love it when you own me”—an odd sentiment from a successful businesswoman. A poignant tale of love and family trapped in a meandering narrative.

Pub Date : 17/10/2011
ISBN : 978-1466391949
Publisher : CreateSpace
Program : Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online : April 29th, 2013
Author : Pradeep Persaud

Dr. Urrutia chronicles the steps of Fidel Castro's take over of the political and governmental machinery of Cuba after the revolution. The author had been Provisional President of the country, installed in the office by the agreement of all the many factions among the revolutionaries. The Dr., whose belief in militant democracy is outlined in these pages, charges that he and others like him embarrassed Castro in the early days by anti -communist, anti-socialist declarations and were harrassed out of office by major and petty methods of persecution.

Dr. Urrutia resigned after six months. He offers personal recollections of actions and conversations with Castro and his associates that revealed their direct communist influence and commitment. The mechanics involved in the repression of the press, the new directions of the schools, the hamstringing of the judiciary and the continual harangue to which the Cuban population was subjected, makes this an overview of the development of a tyranny of value to serious students of political science aware of the passionately partisan source, who continues his anti-Castro, anti-communist assault from exile in Venezuela.

Publisher : Frederick A. Praeger
Published : 01/01/1964
Author : Manuel Urrutia

A specialist in highlighting the drama in espionage and war, Breuer (Shadow Warriors, 1996, etc.) chronicles the escalating clash between President John F. Kennedy and Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. Breuer's account takes a strong anti-Castro view on the disintegration of relations between the US and Cuba. Yet Breuer is far from pro-Kennedy, demonstrating the similarities between the two leaders, especially their heavy reliance on brothers of parallel temperamentthe humorless and ruthless Bobby Kennedy and Ra£l Castro.

Before Castro had completed his first year in charge of Cuba, President Dwight Eisenhower had ordered the CIA to eliminate him and his revolutionary government. In the early days of his presidential campaign, Kennedy criticized Eisenhower's assessment of the Cuban regime. Only after Kennedy learned of secret plans to invade Cuba did he begin to criticize Castro publicly, due to fears that such a dramatic military move would give the incumbent Republican administration an advantage at the polls. Kennedy shrewdly beat Richard Nixon to the punch during a televised debate, calling for American support of Cuban freedom fighters, while Nixon was unable to speak on the issue for fear that he would reveal the Eisenhower administration's support of the planned invasion.

Within weeks of taking office, Kennedy was deeply involved in planning the Bay of Pigs invasion. When it failed both of its objectivesto overthrow the Castro government and maintain the myth that the invasion was inspired, planned, and manned solely by Cuban political refugees Castro became the number one target of the ``Fighting Irish'' duo in the White House. Tensions mounted and then exploded as the ultimate Cold War drama unfolded: the Cuban missile crisis. Relying on American sources, including government documents and interviews with former spooks, Breuer adds some interesting tidbits to this often rehashed period of the Cold War. (17 photos, not seen)

Pub Date : 13/02/1998
ISBN : 0-471-18456-X
Publisher : Wiley
Review Posted Online : June 24th, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue : Jan. 1st, 1998
Author : William B. Breuer

Exciting if journalistic description by Breuer (Geronimo!, Hitler's Undercover War, Sea Wolf--all 1989, etc.) of the vast superstructure of deception erected by the Allies to mislead Hitler about the focus of the D-Day invasion. Churchill called the deception, which succeeded in keeping huge German forces immobilized in Scandinavia and the Balkans, ``the greatest hoax in history'': As late as eight weeks after the Normandy invasion, the German Fifteenth Army was still waiting for a nonexistent attack in the Pas de Calais area from a nonexistent army of 1.5 million men under Patton's command.

Meanwhile, an enormous force of more than 5,000 ships, 700 warships, and 150,000 men had been able to approach the Normandy beaches unobserved. No German leader expected the attack on the date it occurred, and Allied D-Day casualties, which had been expected to number more than 60,000, were in fact fewer than 12,000. Much of Breuer's material is familiar, including his discussion of the huge advantage given to the Allies by the breaking of the German codes, and of the control by British Intelligence of every German spy in Britain.

But though the author relies almost entirely on previously published information, some of it is less familiar--for example, the covert buying of long-dormant Norwegian stocks and bonds in European financial centers, in order to suggest that Norway would be one focus of the Allied attack; and the extraordinarily thorough means by which, in the final days before D-Day, Britain closed itself down to prevent any last-minute leakage of information, a process that included opening diplomatic pouches and forbidding foreign diplomats to leave England. While Breuer can hardly pass a clichÇ without picking it up (diplomats are ``striped-pants bureaucrats'' and ``glamorous femme fatales'' like to ``snuggle up'' to British agents), he brings together the elements of deception in a compelling way, revealing more fully than individual narratives have done just how brilliant the Allied deception actually was. (Military Book Club Dual Selection for May)

Pub Date : 01/05/1993
ISBN : 0-275-94438-7
Publisher : Praeger
Review Posted Online : May 20th, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue : April 1st, 1993
Author : William B. Breuer

In an engrossing tale of unsung heroes and high-risk missions, military historian Breuer (Feuding Allies, 1995, etc.) penetrates the little-known espionage, propaganda, and guerilla operations of the Korean war. When well-equipped, Soviet trained North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel on June 15, 1950, in what Breuer calls a ``second Pearl Harbor,'' the overmatched South Korean defenders were quickly driven into a small pocket in southeastern Korea called the Pusan Peninsula. There they held fast, with the emergency support of newly arrived (but inexperienced) American troops.

The covert war began almost immediately. General Douglas MacArthur's special warfare unit spread disinformation before his surprise landing at Inchon in the enemy rear. Army and CIA units trained many South Koreans and sent them North to spy and to carry out guerrilla operations, often with great success. Yet the North Koreans and their Chinese allies had their covert victories, too. Communist forces often seemed to know when and where the UN forces would attack. Breuer tracks these leaks back to the highly placed British traitors Philby, Burgess, and MacLean, who sent copies of US plans to Moscow.

And the Communist propaganda machine lied so effectively about American ``atrocities'' that some countries demanded investigations, while, Breuer reveals, the Communist military tortured and killed POWs (including Americans) and civilians. While China and the Soviet Union were officially neutral in the war's early days, Breuer finds that Chinese and Soviet soldiers and airmen (with their equipment and supplies) were covertly available to the North Koreans, as they were later to the Communists in North Vietnam. Built on personal interviews and sound secondary research, Breuer's account should please both students of modern military history and espionage enthusiasts. (30 photos, maps)

Pub Date : 17/05/1996
ISBN : 0-471-14438-X
Publisher : Wiley
Review Posted Online : May 20th, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue : March 15th, 1996
Author : William B. Breuer

A thorough and well-documented analysis by Paterson (History/U of Connecticut) of how Castro came to power in Cuba and why the United States failed to stop him. Drawing on U.S., Canadian, and British records, as well as considerable research in private American archives, Paterson launches an unqualified assault on the notion that Fidel Castro was a Communist prior to his accession to power: ``That Castro later- -after victory and repeated crises with the United States--declared himself a Communist cannot erase the pre-1959 record of minimal contact'' between the Cuban Communist Party and Castro's movement.

Indeed he argues that Castro's movement ``actually distrusted the Communists because of their one-time sordid alliance with Fulgencio Batista.'' Nor, he notes, was the State Department neglectful of the possibility that Castro might be hiding Communist sympathies. On the contrary, they repeatedly looked into the matter, and the failure of the United States to act more decisively against Castro was in part a reflection of the failure to find any connection between him and the Communist Party or the Soviet Union. A variety of American officials found in him, rather, ``gargantuan ambitions, authoritarian tendencies, and not much in the way of an ideology of his own.'' Paterson believes that the United States showed ``a deadly combination'' of ``ignorance and arrogance'' in dealing with the situation and that its failure to show an evenhanded approach to the civil war in Cuba further stimulated Castro's already lively anti-Americanism.

Paterson says that there have been three views of Castro: that he was a ``power hungry manipulator,'' a ``supremely pragmatic politician,'' or, most charitably, that he was a leader in training, feeling his way to a world view. Favoring no one theory, Paterson does show how skillfully Castro maneuvered to achieve his objectives. Paterson does not approach this matter without his own biases (against ``right-wing ideologues'' and officials ``fixated on the Communist issue''), nor did he have access to the Cuban or the Soviet archives; but this is a careful, well-constructed, well- argued, and essential source.

Pub Date : April 1st, 1994
ISBN : 0-19-508630-9
Publisher : Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online : May 20th, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue : Feb. 1st, 1994
Author : Thomas G. Paterson

Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez (né en 1930 - fusillé le 13 juillet 1989) était un général de division de l'armée cubaine. Compagnon de route de Fidel Castro, il est exécuté pour « haute trahison à la patrie ». Il est accusé avec plusieurs hauts officiers du ministère de l'Intérieur (dont le ministre lui-même) de corruption et de trafic de drogue. Ochoa est né à La Havane d'une famille de paysans. Il a fait partie dès le début des premiers partisans de Fidel Castro lors de la révolution cubaine dans les années 1950. Dès mars 1957 il rejoint la guérilla castriste dans les montagnes de la Sierra Maestra pour combattre les forces du dictateur Fulgencio Batista. Ochoa a joué un rôle majeur dans la chute de Santa Clara et devient un ami proche de Raúl Castro. Il a également été un combattant actif lors des événements de la baie des Cochons.

Dans les années 1960 Ochoa dirige une insurrection communiste au Venezuela mais il échoue dans ses manœuvres. En 1965 il devient membre du parti communiste cubain, parti dont il fut un membre du comité central pendant plus de 20 ans. Il s'occupe de mettre en place une école militaire au Cuba et part lui-même se former en Union soviétique. Entre 1967 et 1969 il s'occupe de l’entraînement des rebelles congolais. En 1975 Ochoa se voit confier une mission périlleuse en Angola pour engager, au côté du FNLA, des combats à Luanda. Il gagne de cette campagne le respect et l'estime des commandants soviétiques et cubains. En 1977 il est nommé commandant des forces expéditionnaires cubaines en Éthiopie sous le commandement du général soviétique Petrov. Ses succès contre l'armée somalienne ont impressionné le commandement soviétique sur le champ de bataille. En 1980 Ochoa est considéré comme un grand internationaliste et a été récompensé du titre de « héros de la révolution cubaine » par Fidel Castro.

Jusqu'en 1986 les guerres du régime castriste étaient financées par le soutien inconditionnel de l'Union soviétique. Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, qui renoue des relations amicales avec les États-Unis, cesse alors d'assister le régime du petit frère cubain. Ainsi la poursuite de la guerre d'Angola et l'entretien du corps expéditionnaire cubain doit être supporté uniquement par Cuba, complètement exsangue d'aide extérieure et sous embargo strict. Jusqu'en 1987 les troupes cubaines en Angola sont en perdition et Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez, considéré comme le meilleur général cubain, prend le commandement des troupes cubaines pour sauver la situation. Sans réel soutien matériel de Cuba, il est amené à différents petits trafics.

Il parvient, avec ses 70 000 soldats, à renverser la situation et à mettre en retraite les rebelles angolais et l'armée sud-africaine, supportés financièrement et militairement par la CIA. En décembre 1988, des accords de paix entre les belligérants sont signés, et Ochoa Sanchez rentre à Cuba. Il est à ce moment prédestiné à prendre le commandement de l'« armée occidentale », le contingent militaire principal de Cuba, chargé de la défense directe du pays. Le 12 juin 1989, le ministre des forces armées révolutionnaires annonce l'arrestation et l'enquête portant sur le général de division Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez, soupçonné de corruption, de détournements de fonds et de trafic de drogue en lien notamment avec Pablo Escobar.

Dès le 16 juin il est jugé avec quelques autres officiers par un tribunal d'honneur militaire. Le procès est médiatisé par le gouvernement cubain qui bouscule les programmes de la télévision nationale pour diffuser en léger différé les audiences jour après jour. Devant le tribunal, Ochoa, qui apparaît visiblement épuisé, reconnaît sa culpabilité. L'un après l'autre, 47 officiers réclament la peine de mort. À l'issue de son procès militaire il est déclaré coupable et condamné à être fusillé avec trois autres officiers, le colonel Antonio de la Guardia, le capitaine Jorge Martinez et le major Amado Padrón. Le ministre de l'Intérieur, José Abrantes, est condamné à vingt ans de prison pour complicité et meurt en détention le 21 janvier 1991. Le 9 juillet 1989, le Conseil d'État ratifie les sentences à l'unanimité.

Selon certaines sources, les deux procès d'Ochoa seraient similaires aux sinistres procès de Moscou staliniens. Ils auraient été conçus pour l'éliminer, détruire son image et le coiffer du chapeau d'un trafic de drogue destiné à procurer des devises à l'État cubain. Ils auraient permis aux frères Castro de réaffirmer leur pouvoir et d'éliminer la vague de perestroïka et de glasnost qui touche l'ensemble des pays communistes à cette période. Le 13 juillet 1989 Arnaldo Ochoa et les trois autres officiers sont fusillés par un peloton d'exécution. Une simple déclaration est parue dans le journal Granma le lendemain pour annoncer les exécutions.

Cogent summary of decades of Cuban-American animus, plus speculation about future détente. When an ailing Fidel Castro handed over the presidency to his younger brother Raúl in February 2008, a U.S. State Department spokesperson dismissed it as “a transfer of authority and power from one dictator to a dictator-lite.” Nor was anyone celebrating in Dade County, Fla., epicenter of the expatriate Cuban community. Washington and the expats shared long-cherished assumptions about Cuba: that Fidel’s death would finally trigger major changes, that Raúl would be unable to remain in power unless he embraced reforms, that a democratic revolution would burst forth from the disgruntled populace, ushering the exiles back in triumph.

None of these assumptions have been borne out. Erikson, a senior associate for U.S. policy at Washington think tank Inter-American Dialogue, has traveled frequently to Cuba and is evidently well versed in its history and culture. He skillfully assesses both sides as he chronicles the “war of nerves” between America and Cuba since the Bay of Pigs invasion and President Kennedy’s 1962 embargo, in effect to this day. Subsequent U.S. presidents only hardened this stance, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union threw the island’s economy into a tailspin and removed a principal justification for hostilities. Politicians trolling for votes deferred to exile groups’ insistence that stronger sanctions were needed to bring Castro down.

Democrats played that game too, but lost the Cuban-American community’s support after Attorney General Janet Reno facilitated Elián González’s return to Cuba and his father in June 2000, with dire results for Al Gore’s Florida vote count in November. Erikson marvels at Castro’s resiliency, interviews dissenters who loathe his repressive methods but admire his anti-imperialist ideals, explores the political clout of Little Havana in Miami, visits prisoners, comments on propaganda and reports on the curious alliance between Castro and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, providing an invaluable snapshot of a nation poised to ignite on the eve of the revolution’s 50th anniversary. Terrific background, keen insight and an evenhanded critical distance distinguish Erikson’s fine work.

Pub Date : 01/11/2008
ISBN : 978-1-59691-434-6
Publisher : Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online : May 20th, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue : Sept. 1st, 2008
Author : Daniel P. Erikson

Le Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, le BEFEO, est une revue créée en 1901 de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, qui publie annuellement des travaux scientifiques d’un haut niveau d’érudition, rédigés en français ou en anglais, portant sur l’Asie orientale, dans tous les domaines des sciences humaines et sociales. C’est l’une des revues les plus anciennes et les plus renommées sur le plan international dans le domaine des études asiatiques.

Dès ses débuts, le BEFEO a accueilli des textes signés par les plus grands orientalistes occidentaux. Depuis les années 1970, la revue s’est résolument ouverte aux sciences sociales et à l’histoire contemporaine de l'Asie orientale, tout en maintenant ses domaines de prédilection remarquable: l’histoire de l’art, l’archéologie, la philologie, l’histoire ancienne, l’ethnographie, etc. Outre une importante section de recensions d’ouvrages, le BEFEO comprend une partie de chroniques qui fait part des activités des membres de l’EFEO et rend compte de certaines manifestations scientifiques majeures.