This analysis will NOT tackle on the storyline of this historical and literature masterpiece but on the manner Piero Gleijeses, the author, collected, documented, analyzed, and presented data on his work. It is an impressive endeavor to exhaustively dedicate a significant amount of attention and duration of time in a particular work.
Truly, historian Piero Gleijeses’ Conflicting Missions is a persuasive and remarkable historical anthology of the Cuban policy in Africa from 1959 to 1976. It is indeed a definitive work on the role of Cubans in Africa. Accordingly, it also includes the continued and increasing disagreement with the United States policy towards the continent. Gleijeses time-traveled its readers in the period in which Cubans were initially extending support to the Algerian rebels who were in battle against France back in 1961. It also narrated the clandestine warfare between Havana and Washington in Zaire in 1964-65 wherein a hundred of Cubans headed by Che Guevara clashed with a thousand mercenaries who were controlled by the CIA. Lastly, the historical dispatch of 30, 000 Cubans to Angola in 1975-76 that stopped the South African advance on Luana and doomed Henry Kissinger’s major covert operation there (University of South Carolina Press Website).
I decided to focus on the process Gleijeses used in this achievement because of several reasons. First, discussing the plot of the story is almost the subject of all reviewers. I can no longer add to the credits given by legitimate scholars and reviewers. Second, there is least attention given to his effort on finding his facts and information with regards to his subject of interest. Third, due to my fascination to the field of research, investigation, and historical archival, I was impressed by his passion.
The facts presented in Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 is a “labour of love” (Kirk 2003). It is a substantial documentation of “superb photographs, detailed maps that illustrate key military battles and amusing cartoons”. Gleijeses exerted much effort to gather pertinent and never-before-heard-and-seen information in connection to the topic. The outstanding action to collect such information from government historical records of America and Cuba as well as other European countries, media libraries, newspapers throughout Africa (Kirk 2003; French 7), diaries, as well as interviews with Cuban veterans, whose voices are heard here for the first time (Parenti 52), is really commendable.
Further, it took a lot of financial resources, courage and patience to coordinate with different people in different geographical location just to accumulate relevant data. The research ability of Gleijeses is not only the best attribute of his personality but also the fact that he endured several barriers and complications in his years of historical and passionate endeavor.
Undeniably, this book is appreciated in all areas concerned and applied. The truth that it holds will serve as a source or reference of students as well as professionals in pursuit of knowing what really happened in that controversial era. More often than not, such accounts provided by the author is factual and needs no further validation for the obvious reason that it was a product of extensive research and inquiry.
Kirk (2003) evaluated the book as a classic. Aside from providing historical knowledge on the Cuban role in Africa, it served the interest of people with regards to the application of the U.S. foreign policy, its results, and its flaws. An article in The Washington Times tagged this anthology as a “story of revolutionary ambition”.
To make this analysis complete and objective, I need to further raise an argument on the manner in which some people interpret the image of the Americans as mercenaries. U.S. mercenaries in that place during that period are termed as foreign military advisers. In my own opinion, this is a clear manifestation of double standards and yearning to control.
Piero Gleijeses’ Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 is a masterpiece not only acknowledged because of its relevance to the society but most importantly the manner in which it was completed that resulted to a hundred and one percent approval and nobility.
Works Cited
---. “Cuban Designs on Africa; Author Wades into U.S. Records.” The
Washington Times. 12 Feb. 2002: A15.
---. The University of South Carolina Press Website. Description. (2003). 22 Mar.
2006
French, Howard H. “How America Helped Savimbi and Apartheid South Africa.”
New African. June 2002: 7.
Gleijeses, Piero. Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-
1976. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Kim, John M. “Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-
1976.” Canadian Journal of History. Apr. 2003. 21 Mar. 2006. <>
Parenti, Christian. “Back to the Motherland: Cuba in Africa”. Monthly Review
55.2 2003): 52+.
Truly, historian Piero Gleijeses’ Conflicting Missions is a persuasive and remarkable historical anthology of the Cuban policy in Africa from 1959 to 1976. It is indeed a definitive work on the role of Cubans in Africa. Accordingly, it also includes the continued and increasing disagreement with the United States policy towards the continent. Gleijeses time-traveled its readers in the period in which Cubans were initially extending support to the Algerian rebels who were in battle against France back in 1961. It also narrated the clandestine warfare between Havana and Washington in Zaire in 1964-65 wherein a hundred of Cubans headed by Che Guevara clashed with a thousand mercenaries who were controlled by the CIA. Lastly, the historical dispatch of 30, 000 Cubans to Angola in 1975-76 that stopped the South African advance on Luana and doomed Henry Kissinger’s major covert operation there (University of South Carolina Press Website).
I decided to focus on the process Gleijeses used in this achievement because of several reasons. First, discussing the plot of the story is almost the subject of all reviewers. I can no longer add to the credits given by legitimate scholars and reviewers. Second, there is least attention given to his effort on finding his facts and information with regards to his subject of interest. Third, due to my fascination to the field of research, investigation, and historical archival, I was impressed by his passion.
The facts presented in Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 is a “labour of love” (Kirk 2003). It is a substantial documentation of “superb photographs, detailed maps that illustrate key military battles and amusing cartoons”. Gleijeses exerted much effort to gather pertinent and never-before-heard-and-seen information in connection to the topic. The outstanding action to collect such information from government historical records of America and Cuba as well as other European countries, media libraries, newspapers throughout Africa (Kirk 2003; French 7), diaries, as well as interviews with Cuban veterans, whose voices are heard here for the first time (Parenti 52), is really commendable.
Further, it took a lot of financial resources, courage and patience to coordinate with different people in different geographical location just to accumulate relevant data. The research ability of Gleijeses is not only the best attribute of his personality but also the fact that he endured several barriers and complications in his years of historical and passionate endeavor.
Undeniably, this book is appreciated in all areas concerned and applied. The truth that it holds will serve as a source or reference of students as well as professionals in pursuit of knowing what really happened in that controversial era. More often than not, such accounts provided by the author is factual and needs no further validation for the obvious reason that it was a product of extensive research and inquiry.
Kirk (2003) evaluated the book as a classic. Aside from providing historical knowledge on the Cuban role in Africa, it served the interest of people with regards to the application of the U.S. foreign policy, its results, and its flaws. An article in The Washington Times tagged this anthology as a “story of revolutionary ambition”.
To make this analysis complete and objective, I need to further raise an argument on the manner in which some people interpret the image of the Americans as mercenaries. U.S. mercenaries in that place during that period are termed as foreign military advisers. In my own opinion, this is a clear manifestation of double standards and yearning to control.
Piero Gleijeses’ Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 is a masterpiece not only acknowledged because of its relevance to the society but most importantly the manner in which it was completed that resulted to a hundred and one percent approval and nobility.
Works Cited
---. “Cuban Designs on Africa; Author Wades into U.S. Records.” The
Washington Times. 12 Feb. 2002: A15.
---. The University of South Carolina Press Website. Description. (2003). 22 Mar.
2006
French, Howard H. “How America Helped Savimbi and Apartheid South Africa.”
New African. June 2002: 7.
Gleijeses, Piero. Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-
1976. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Kim, John M. “Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-
1976.” Canadian Journal of History. Apr. 2003. 21 Mar. 2006. <>
Parenti, Christian. “Back to the Motherland: Cuba in Africa”. Monthly Review
55.2 2003): 52+.
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