Guant疣amo, USA: The Untold History of America's Cuban Outpost (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780700616701)

Established as America's first foreign naval base following the Spanish-American War, Guant namo is now more often thought of as our Devil's Island, the gulag of our times. This book takes readers beyond the orange-jumpsuited detainees of today's headlines to provide the first comprehensive history of Guant namo from its origins to the present.

Occupying 45 square miles of land and sea, Guant namo has for more than a century symbolized the imperial impulse within U.S. foreign policy, and its occupation is decried by Cuba as a violation of international law--even though a treaty legally grants the U.S. a lease in perpetuity. Stephen Schwab now describes the base's role in American, Caribbean, and global history, explaining how it came to be, why it's still there, and how it continues to serve a variety of purposes.

Schwab views the base's creation as part of a broad U.S. strategy of annexations, protectorates, and limited interventions devised to create a strong sphere of influence in the western Atlantic. He charts its history from this early belief that it would prevent European powers from staking imperial claims in the Caribbean and examines the crucial defensive role that Guant namo played as a convoy hub for strategic goods during World War II. He then looks at clashes over Guant namo during the Cold War, culminating in LBJ's decision to make the base independent by firing Cuban workers and building a desalinization plant. Schwab also fleshes out Guant namo's ongoing roles as the U.S. Navy's lone forward base in the Caribbean, providing refueling for U.S. and allied ships, as a Coast Guard station engaged in search-and-rescue missions and counternarcotics operations, and as a U.S. facility for processing undocumented aliens.

Even though the Castro government persistently protests America's presence--and refuses even to bank the rent that the U.S. dutifully pays--Guant namo remains the only place where diplomatic exchanges between the two countries occur, and Schwab documents how the facility has served mutual interests as both a point of nationalistic frictions and a center for diplomatic compromise. By presenting Guant namo's story within its broader historical framework, his book gives readers a greater appreciation of America's true stake in this controversial Caribbean outpost.

Author: Stephen Irving Max Schwab
ISBN-10: 0700616705
ISBN-13: 9780700616701
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Language: English
Published: 11/16/2009
Pages: 382
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.77lbs
Size: 9.54h x 6.30w x 1.27d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/28/2009 pg. 56
Chronicle of Higher Education 11/13/2009 pg. 18
Library Journal Annex 12/10/2009
Choice 04/01/2010