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What Was Communism? #2
The Cuban Drumbeat
Reflecting on Cuba’s unique foreign policy—both its meaning and its legacy—and how Cuba has adjusted to a world dominated by the United States, Piero Gleijeses asserts in The Cuban Drumbeat that it has been a policy without equal in modern times. During the cold war, extra-continental military interventions were the preserve of the two superpowers, a few West European countries, and Cuba. Gleijeses documents how the rest of the world was regularly stunned by Cuba’s massive uses of force, including the 1975–76 dispatch of 36,000 Cuban soldiers to Angola to repel a South African invasion, the 12,000 Cuban soldiers sent to Ethiopia in 1978 to help defeat a Somali invasion, and the 55,000 Cuban soldiers present in Angola by 1988. Even the Soviet Union sent far fewer troops beyond its immediate borders in those years than did Cuba. The Cuban Drumbeat describes how the cold war framed three decades of Castro’s revolutionary zeal; but, Gleijeses argues, Castro’s vision was always larger than the cold war. For Castro, the battle against imperialism—his raison d ’ être —is more than the struggle against the United it is the war against despair and oppression in the Third World—a war that continues even though the future of Castro’s policies is uncertain.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 1, 2023
Book was recommended through the podcast Blowback, in a season-long deep dive into the Cuban Revolution.
In 1995 Nelson Mandela said, "Cubans came to our region as doctors, teachers, soldiers, agricultural experts, but never as colonizers. They have shared the same trenches with us in the struggle against colonialism, underdevelopment, and Apartheid. Hundreds of Cubans have given their lives, literally, in a struggle that was, first and foremost, not theirs but ours. As Southern Africans we salute them. We vow never to forget this unparalleled example of selfless internationalism."
The Cuban Drumbeat is a short look at Cuba's foreign policy since the revolution, specifically at their aid and interventions in Angola and Ethiopia. I remember learning about their interventions in a History of Africa class in my undergrad, and it just blew my mind that such a small and surrounded country would be intervening in Africa.
"The Cuban leaders were convinced that their country had a special empathy for and a special role to play in the Third World beyond the confines of Latin America. The Soviets and their East European allies were white and, by Third World standards, rich; the Chinese exhibited the hubris of a great and rising power, and were unable to adapt to African and Latin American culture. By contrast, Cuba was non-white, poor, threatened by a powerful enemy and culturally both Latin American and African. It was, therefore, a unique hybrid: a So- cialist country with a Third World sensibility. This mattered, in a world that was dominated, as Castro rightly understood, by the 'conflict between privileged and underprivileged, humanity against imperialism' and where the major fault line was not between socialist and capitalist states but between developed and underdeveloped countries."
The support Cuban has freely given Africa without expectation of resources or subservience is without equal.
"Between 1963 and 1975, approximately 1,000 Cuban aid workers went to sev- eral African countries, South Yemen and North Vietnam. By 1991, more than 70,000 had laboured in Africa, Latin America and Asia at no or very lit- tle cost to the host country. The number of foreign scholarship students in Cuba also ballooned....Before Angola, about 40 Cubans had fought in Latin America and fewer than 1,400 in Africa. From the late 1970s through the late 1980s, more than 1,000 Cuban military advisers were stationed in Nicaragua but, once again, it was to Africa that the bulk of the Cuban soldiers went: tens of thousands remained in Angola and 12,000 went to Ethiopia between December 1977 and March 1978. It was a policy without equal in modern times."
Cuban forces helped protect Angola from South African invasion and helped the collapse of the Apartheid regimes that South Africa propped up. Cuba continues to educate doctors and other professionals who return to their homelands and make a difference in the lives of underprivileged, and sent doctors abroad during COVID to help those the west was failing.
When I first put this book on my to-read list, I didn't realize it was part of a longer series, and I think I'll have to seek out the rest!
In 1995 Nelson Mandela said, "Cubans came to our region as doctors, teachers, soldiers, agricultural experts, but never as colonizers. They have shared the same trenches with us in the struggle against colonialism, underdevelopment, and Apartheid. Hundreds of Cubans have given their lives, literally, in a struggle that was, first and foremost, not theirs but ours. As Southern Africans we salute them. We vow never to forget this unparalleled example of selfless internationalism."
The Cuban Drumbeat is a short look at Cuba's foreign policy since the revolution, specifically at their aid and interventions in Angola and Ethiopia. I remember learning about their interventions in a History of Africa class in my undergrad, and it just blew my mind that such a small and surrounded country would be intervening in Africa.
"The Cuban leaders were convinced that their country had a special empathy for and a special role to play in the Third World beyond the confines of Latin America. The Soviets and their East European allies were white and, by Third World standards, rich; the Chinese exhibited the hubris of a great and rising power, and were unable to adapt to African and Latin American culture. By contrast, Cuba was non-white, poor, threatened by a powerful enemy and culturally both Latin American and African. It was, therefore, a unique hybrid: a So- cialist country with a Third World sensibility. This mattered, in a world that was dominated, as Castro rightly understood, by the 'conflict between privileged and underprivileged, humanity against imperialism' and where the major fault line was not between socialist and capitalist states but between developed and underdeveloped countries."
The support Cuban has freely given Africa without expectation of resources or subservience is without equal.
"Between 1963 and 1975, approximately 1,000 Cuban aid workers went to sev- eral African countries, South Yemen and North Vietnam. By 1991, more than 70,000 had laboured in Africa, Latin America and Asia at no or very lit- tle cost to the host country. The number of foreign scholarship students in Cuba also ballooned....Before Angola, about 40 Cubans had fought in Latin America and fewer than 1,400 in Africa. From the late 1970s through the late 1980s, more than 1,000 Cuban military advisers were stationed in Nicaragua but, once again, it was to Africa that the bulk of the Cuban soldiers went: tens of thousands remained in Angola and 12,000 went to Ethiopia between December 1977 and March 1978. It was a policy without equal in modern times."
Cuban forces helped protect Angola from South African invasion and helped the collapse of the Apartheid regimes that South Africa propped up. Cuba continues to educate doctors and other professionals who return to their homelands and make a difference in the lives of underprivileged, and sent doctors abroad during COVID to help those the west was failing.
When I first put this book on my to-read list, I didn't realize it was part of a longer series, and I think I'll have to seek out the rest!
June 25, 2021
Short and sweet. I had already read Gleijeses' "Conflicting Missions" and "Visions of Freedom", but this was a good refresher on the major points of both books. If you haven't read those, this is a good intro.
Also have to commend the publisher for the excellent graphic design and general layout of the book!
Also have to commend the publisher for the excellent graphic design and general layout of the book!
November 22, 2024
"US officials and pundits ponder what conditions to demand of the errant Cubans before Washington lifts it's embargo, forgetting that it is the US that tried to assassinate Castro, carried out terrorist actions against Cuba and continues to occupy Cuban territory- Guantánamo, the filthy lucre of 1898. Their 'selective recall'- so critical to the maintenance of the myth of the City on the Hill- allows them to transform Cuba into the aggressor and the US into the victim. It is not love of democracy or concern for the welfare of the Cuban people that motivates the Americans. The desire for revenge, nothing more, explains US policy towards Castro's Cuba."
Piero Gleijeses.
Piero Gleijeses.
September 24, 2025
As Nelson Mandela said, Cuba played an integral role in the end of Apartheid in South Africa and helped achieve independence for other countries who were still under colonial rule-that’s an important legacy.
December 6, 2018
Solid short introduction to Cuban foreign policy.
October 19, 2024
Very informational, showed a non-American perspective on Cuba and Castro. I would have enjoyed a bit more analysis throughout the book or in the form of a conclusion at the end.
June 25, 2013
Enlightening and very interesting
August 4, 2013
A fascinating account of Cuban foreign policy under Castro.
November 10, 2018
Certainly a biased narrative and telling of history, but definitely one worth reading and knowing.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews