Visions of Freedom

View Inside

672 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 31 halftones, 9 maps, notes, bibl., index

Not for sale in South African region

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-2832-5
Published: February 2016
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-4547-4
Published: November 2013
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-0969-0
Published: November 2013

New Cold War History

Buy this Book

Paperback $40.00
E-Book $19.99

Barnes and Noble Ebooks Amazon Kindle Sony Ebooks Apple iBookstore

For Professors:
Free E-Exam Copies

To purchase online via an independent bookstore, visit Bookshop.org

Also Available as an Omnibus Ebook

Book Website

Awards & distinctions

2014 Friedrich Katz Prize, American Historical Association

During the final fifteen years of the Cold War, southern Africa underwent a period of upheaval, with dramatic twists and turns in relations between the superpowers. Americans, Cubans, Soviets, and Africans fought over the future of Angola, where tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers were stationed, and over the decolonization of Namibia, Africa's last colony. Beyond lay the great prize: South Africa. Piero Gleijeses uses archival sources, particularly from the United States, South Africa, and the closed Cuban archives, to provide an unprecedented international history of this important theater of the late Cold War.

These sources all point to one conclusion: by humiliating the United States and defying the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro changed the course of history in southern Africa. It was Cuba's victory in Angola in 1988 that forced Pretoria to set Namibia free and helped break the back of apartheid South Africa. In the words of Nelson Mandela, the Cubans "destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor . . . [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa."

About the Author

Piero Gleijeses is professor of American foreign policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is author of Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976, among other books.
For more information about Piero Gleijeses, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

“Gleijeses’s massively researched and provocative study of the complex relationship between Cuba, the United States, and South Africa enhances his reputation as one of the leading scholars of international relations.”—Journal of American History

“A comprehensive, informative account.”—Journal of Latin American Studies

"A masterful scholarly inquiry."—Noam Chomsky, Truthout

"Gleijeses’s eminently readable work is a major contribution to the historiography of the Cold War on one of its lesser-known fronts; it is diplomatic history at its finest and at its most compelling."—International Affairs

"Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above."—CHOICE

“Visions of Freedom should stand as a standard reference for any examination of the hot wars in Africa.”—Hispanic American Historical Review