The Real Fidel Castro

Leycester Coltman

Yale University Press, Oct 1, 2008 - Biography & Autobiography - 352 pages

Rhetoric during and after the Cold War years has painted starkly contrasting portraits of Cuba's Fidel Castro: an unblemished idealist on the one hand, a ruthless dictator on the other. This insightful book, the most intimate and dispassionate biography of the revolutionary leader to date, shows that neither assessment is true.

Leycester Coltman, British ambassador to Cuba in the early 1990s, came as close to personal friendship with Castro as any foreigner was permitted. With frequent contact and regular conversations, Coltman was in a unique position to observe the dictator's personality in both public and private situations. Here he presents a close-up view of the man who for half a century has been loved, admired, feared, and hated, but seldom really understood.

Coltman chronicles the events of the Cuban leader's extraordinary life from the political activism of his university days in Havana to periods of exile, imprisonment, and guerilla warfare alongside Che Guevara, to the uncertainties of his old age. Drawing on personal observation and archival sources in Cuba and abroad, Coltman explores the contradiction between the private character and the public reputation, and highlights the complexities of the consummate actor who continues to play a crucial role on the international stage.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - addunn3 - LibraryThing

The best biography of a very complex and, in the US, very maligned leader I have read. For over 50 years he has guided Cuba through the maze of CIA attacks, embargoes, and changing world politics and ...

Contents

• 1 Rebel in Search of a Cause: 1
• 2 Alone on the Beach: 16
• 3 Lessons in Revolution: 30
• 4 Parttime Husband and Lawyer: 46
• 5 The Movement: 59
• 6 Moncada Lives: 80
• 7 Prison and Exile: 93
• 8 In the Sierra: 113
• 9 Power: 140
• 10 Invasion: 167
• 11 The Missile Crisis: 187
• 12 Revolution and More Revolution: 203
• 13 The Private Man: 219
• 14 The Economy a Poet and Chile: 227
• 15 Leader of the Third World: 237
• 16 The Old Order Changes: 247
• 17 Hard Times: 267
• 18 The Final Hour?: 282
• 19 Second Wind: 301
• 20 End Game: 314
• Select Bibliography: 323
• Index: 325

About the author

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Bibliographic information

• Title: The Real Fidel Castro
• Author: Leycester Coltman
• Edition: unabridged
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 2008
• ISBN: 0300133391, 9780300133394
• Length: 352 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical