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Kaplowitz, Donna Rich. Anatomy of a Failed Embargo: US. Sanctions Against Cuba. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1998. Appendix, bibliography, index, 252 pp.; hardcover $49.95.
In this competently written work, the former deputy director of the Cuban Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University argues that the embargo the United States imposed on Cuba in the early 1960s has failed to achieve most of its stated objectives, most important the ouster of Fidel Castro. Three main reasons are listed for this policy failure. First, Cuba could circumvent the embargo (for many years) by turning to the Soviet Union. Second, Castro managed to develop effective countermeasures, most notably by using the U.S. sanction policy to rally national support. Third, the main goal of the embargo (to oust Fidel Castro) was too difficult to achieve through an embargo policy.
Kaplowitz carefully analyzes the life of the embargo by dividing her work into six historical periods and devoting a chapter to each: "Origins of a Unilateral Embargo, 1960-62"; "Multilateralization of the Embargo, 1962-70"; "U.S. Policy Reconsidered,1971-80"; "The Reagan Years and the Rebuilding of the Embargo, 1981-89"; "The Cuban Embargo After Soviet Collapse, 1989-93"; "The Phoenix Rises Again: Cuba, 1993-97." Each chapter examines the evolving domestic economic situation in Cuba and the reasons for changes in U.S. policy.
The book provides a detailed and satisfying historical analysis of the embargo and brings to bear a host of documents and interviews to buttress the scholarship. The main thrust of the text is to show how an embargo so impressive in its duration and exhaustive in its scope failed so miserably to achieve its stated policy objectives....