Vicki Huddleston - Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomats Chronicle of Americas Long Struggle with Castros Cuba

This edition first published in hardcover in the United States in 2018 by
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Copyright 2018 by Vicki Huddleston

Foreword 2018 by Carlos Gutierrez

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.

The opinions and characterizations in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the United States government.

ISBN: 978-1-4683-1580-6

OUR WOMAN IN HAVANA

VICKI HUDDLESTON

18 COLOR AND 5 B&W PHOTOGRAPHS

O ur Woman in Havana chronicles the past several decades of US-Cuba relations from the birds-eye view of State Department veteran and longtime Cuba hand Vicki Huddleston, our top diplomat in Havana under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

After the US embassy in Havana was shuttered in 1961, diplomatic relations between the two countries broke off. A thaw came in 1977, with the opening of a de facto embassy in Havana, the US Interests Section, where Huddleston would later serve. In her compelling memoir of a diplomat at work, she tells gripping stories of face-to-face encounters with Fidel Castro and initiatives she undertook, like the transistor radios she furnished to ordinary Cubans. With inside accounts of many dramatic episodes, like the tumultuous Elin Gonzlez 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 administrations diplomatic opening of 2014, the mysterious sonic brain injuries suffered by US and Canadian diplomats in Havana, and the rescinding of the diplomatic opening under the Trump administration.

Huddleston recounts missed opportunities for dtente, and the myths, misconceptions, and lies that have long pervaded US-Cuba relations. With Ral Castro scheduled to step down in 2018, she also peers into the future, when for the first time in more than six decades no one named Castro will be Cubas leader.

Our Woman in Havana is essential reading for anyone interested in Cuba, including the thousands of Americans visiting the island every year, observers who study the stormy relationship with our near neighbor, and policymakers navigating the nuances and challenges of the US-Cuba relationship.

To the Cuban People

I WAS BORN IN H AVANA IN 1953. S EVEN YEARS LATER , MY FAMILY LEFT Cuba for the United States, one of many families who fled Cubas communist revolution. In 2006, when I first met Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, I was serving as US Secretary of Commerce, charged with implementing President George W. Bushs Cuba policy. Vicki and her colleagues at The Brookings Institution, who were developing a blueprint for restoring relations with Cuba, were convinced that as long as the US threatened Cuba there was no hope for positive change in the relationship. By the time Vicki and I next saw each other at the Meridian International Cultural Diplomacy Forum on Cuba in 2016, I had joined other Cuban Americans in supporting President Barack Obamas opening to Cuba. I felt strongly, after having visited Cuba for the opening of our embassy in Havana on August 14, 2015, that a policy of engagement was in the best interests of the American and the Cuban people.

In thirty years of doing business around the globe, I have found that a vibrant private sector often has an uplifting effect on communities and whole societies. Since Cuba was opening its own private sector when President Obama pursued normalization, it seemed that for once in almost sixty years the stars were aligning. When I visited Cuba again during President Obamas historic visit to the island in March 2016, it was clear to me that the time had come for a new relationship between the two countries. As Vicki reveals in this engaging book, policy towards Cuba is often not a product of the foreign policy process but of domestic politics. In 1991, with the Soviet Union imploding, many Cuban Americans were convinced that Cuba would collapse without the five billion dollar annual subsidy from the recently defunct Soviet Union. Yet it did not collapse. Both President George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, candidates for President in 1992, endorsed legislation that expanded and extended the embargo. When Bill Clinton defeated the incumbent Bush, gaining more votes among Cuban American voters than any recent Democratic candidate before him, the Cuban diaspora imagined he would carry out policies that were largely acceptable to them. He did so until the final years of his second term, when his administration returned Elin Gonzlezthe five-year-old boy found floating on an inner tube in the Florida Straitsto his father in Cuba. This international imbrogliodescribed from Vickis perspective from her experience on the ground in Cuba at the time, with valuable firsthand knowledgecontributed to Al Gores pivotal loss of Florida in the 2000 presidential election.

When President Obama initiated his outreach to Cuba I hoped it would be the beginning of a long process of reconciliation among Cubansthose on the island and those abroad. But, powerful conservative Cuban-Americans have found in President Trump an ally; once again domestic politics have trumped US interests. The tightening of travel policies has had a devastating impact on new Cuban entrepreneurs. Furthermore, a health incident, caused by the strange and still unconfirmed term sonic attacks endured by US diplomats, has pushed the relationship back to almost Cold-War depths. In the meantime, China has stepped up trade and investment in Cuba, while Russia has moved to replace Venezuela as one of Cubas strategic partners.

In Ambassador Huddlestons revealing memoir, which shows a resourceful diplomat at work, Vicki illustrates with stories and an insiders knowledge the myths, misunderstandings, and false statements that have characterized our relations with Cuba. For more than forty years, the US and Cuba have had diplomatic relations. It is a myth that diplomatic relations started with President Obamas push for normalization; the reader discovers that they actually began under President Carter. Although prohibited from flying the Stars and Stripes, the American diplomatic mission in Havanaknown as the United States Interests Sectionhad long been influential.

Vicki is a realist and not nave about the complexities of this relationship. In fact, she describes, in fascinating detail, her often-tense relationship with Fidel Castro. The Cuban leader denounced her and the US government, threatening to close the US Interests section, and then to underline his intent he organized a protest rally of 20,000 that she dared to attend. During her three years as the Chief of our diplomatic mission in Havana, Fidel seemed to have a competitive relationship with her. She describes how he seemed to be interested in her every move, from the dog show career of her prize-winning Afghan hound Havana, to her collection of exile art that she displayed in the beautiful residence of our former ambassadors to Cuba. Their relationship, albeit complicated, had its benefits: after 9/11, Vicki persuaded the Cuban Government to decline to denounce the incarceration of unlawful combatants at Guantanamo base.