To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's 'cold War' Against Cuba Doesn't End

by Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro

Book Overview

Castro and Guevara explain why the U.S. government is determined to destroy the example set by the Cuban revolution and why their effort will fail. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873486331
• ISBN13: 9780873486330
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Pathfinder
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Telling It Like It Is

This book is must reading for those who wish to understand the reason U.S. rulers for more than 40 years have sought to subvert, destablize, and overthrow the Cuban Revolution. It includes talks by central leaders of the first socialist revolution in the Americas given at the United Nations General Assembly -- two by Fidel Castro in 1960 and 1979 and one by Che Guevara in 1964. Both Fidel and Che get to the heart of the matter: the incessant battle between the majority of people in the semi-colonies, workers and farmers of all countries, alongside the workers states on one side and the monopoly capitalist businesses and their governments on the other. The words of Che and Fidel are powerful, as are the photographs included in the book. We see Fidel with Malcolm X, asserting his rights in face of a New York cop, Fidel with Grenada Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, and others.

Cuba at the United Nations

The United Nations has often been used as a political platform to demand, announce, and defend U.S. policies throughout the world. That's what we usually see in the press about the international body. However, in this book, we get another picture of how political leaders used the forum of the United Nations to describe their country's view of the world and revolutionary Cuba's place in it. There are four speeches: two from Che Guevara and two from Fidel Castro over a period of almost twenty years. From the early days of the Cuban Revolution, in 1960, Fidel speaks of the mistreatment and attacks by the U.S. government and media on the Cuban delegation to the U.N. Che speaks frankly and openly about the U.N. forces and the debacle in the Congo. Castro in 1979 speaks for the Movement of the Nonaligned Countries before the U.N. "on behalf of the children of the world who do not even have a piece of bread." Again, with honesty and clarity he takes on the unequal relations between the industrialized world and the developing countries, demanding an end of the super-exploitation of the poor nations. The speeches are easy to read, understand, and the book has excellent footnotes to elaborate on points made ( usually some historical information is included.) Highly recommended for those looking for answers to why the United States government has, and always will, despise the revolutionary Cuban government.

What really is truth?

the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of... of what? well, of class struggles... true... yet on what grounds are these struggles to be fought? the answer can only be ideology. Ideology is the "built in" bias in our consciousness instilled in us since we were little kids to maintain the present ruling order. This sounds horribly conspiratorial, but it really isn't. Every form of society has its own ideology; even communist society. Yet here is what sets communism apart from capitalism: it's ideology speaks for all, not for the wealthy. The history of all hitherto existing communist society has been the history of oppression just as severe as any capitalist society. It is sad, yet Marx could have predicted it. In fact, he did in the Paris manuscripts of 1844. He called it crude communism. Communism is never a means to industrialize, that is the job of capitalism. Cuba may be the only exception of this in the modern world. (the other, perhaps, being pre-stalinist Russia under NEP)I thought I knew much about Che and Fidel. But I don't. The extent of American interventionism in Latin America is quite disturbing, shattering my illusions of "the great land of the free" we look so highly upon. These collected speeches strike at the heart of the Cuban situation. To fight against the American-backed Batista regime and then have to find a way to manage a horribly impoverished economic system has been the ever-increasing struggle for Cuba. It is a hard sell, communism in underdeveloped countries since it really isn't communism at all. Communism comes out of developed capitalism in a state of over-abundance, thus allowing for the complete freedom of all from the "realm of necessity". Still, considering the circumstances, Fidel is quite rightly looked upon with hatred by bourgeois eyes, for he is an honest humanitarian trying to give his people freedom from imperialist oppression. His egalitarian ideology opposes everything American, and these speeches shatter our illusions as to what the "land of the free" is really all about. They are gripping and really quite moving. I do not suggest anyone read these speeches if they have trouble dealing with things as they are, not as they appear to be. But for those with any amount of desire at acquiring truth, these speeches just may alter the way you see the world in which we live.

This is the truth, whether you like it or not!

To Speak the Truth is great that it brings out the truth about the UN with its ineptness and US foreign policy. Anyone with common sense can see the truth. As an American, we must read with an OPEN MIND and see the book for what it's truely worth. Closed minded sheep need not apply.