Fidel: A Critical Portrait
by Tad Szulc
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tad SzulcEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-02-08
ISBN: 0380808889
Number of pages: 704
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Fidel: A Critical Portrait
Book Review: Szluc's Critical Portrait of Castro
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent biography by journalist Tad Szulc that portrays the life of Fidel Castro from his childhood, his Havana University days, and as leader of the Cuban Revolution. The first two thirds of this 650+ page book covers Castro's activities before the triumph of the Revolution. The author makes the observation that Castro grew up in an area economically dominated by American businesses, a fact that may have planted a seed of resentment in the young impressionable Fidel. Several chapters cover Castro's initial planning and execution of his first military assault of the Batista dictatorship at the Moncada barracks in 1953. It is evident from the Moncada Manifesto and the make up of his troops that his political movement was of a democratic nature and called for the restoration of the 1940 constitution. The only evidence of communist indoctrination only seems to exist under the command of his brother Raul and that of Guevara in 1958. Once the Revolution triumphs in 1959, Szluc goes into a detailed account of how Castro manipulated the country politically, militarily, and economically into the Soviet Communist Bloc with a parallel government that operated behind the cover of the pro-democracy cabinet led by provisional President Urrutia, who resigned his post and went into exile by mid-1959 because of communist infiltration in the government. Of particular interest are the narrations on the 1959 agrarian reform, the Bay of Pigs, the Escambray rebellion, and the Missile Crisis. Not much material on Castro's political repression, his interventionism in Latin America and not much on his militarist adventures in Africa. I would enjoy the story about Castro more if it was extended to go beyond the year 1985 - after the fall of the Soviet Union. Reader has to beware, as it is obvious that the interviews with Fidel and his cadre are mainly geared toward propaganda effects, although they are sometimes insightful. As a matter of fact, this book by Szulc is recommended in my own book about Memories from the Land of the Intolerant Tyrant (available from Blue Note Books) as one of the best about Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.
Summary of Fidel: A Critical Portrait
Never before has any biographer had such close access to Fidel Castro as did Tad Szule. The outcome of a long, direct relationship, this riveting portrait reveals astonishing and exclusive information about Cuba, the revolution, and the notorious, larger-than-life leader who has ruled his country with an iron fist for more than forty years.
Only Tad Szule could bring Fidel to such vivid life--the loves and losses of the man, the devious tactics of the conspirator, the triumphs and defeats of the revolutionary leader who challenged an American president and brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster.
From Jesuit schools to jungle hideouts and the Palace of the Revolution, here is Fidel...The Untold Story.
Never before has any biographer had such close access to Fidel Castro as did Tad Szulc.The outcome of a long, direct relationship, this riveting portrait reveals astonishing and exclusive information about Cuba, the revolution, and the notorious, larger-than-life leader who has ruled his country with an iron fist for more than forty years.Only Tad Szulc could bring Fidel to such vivid life--the loves and losses of the man, the devious tactics of the conspirator, the triumphs and defeats of the revolutionary leader who challenged an American president and brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster.
From Jesuit schools to jungle hideouts and the Palace of the Revolution, here is FIDEL...THE UNTOLD STORY.
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