Starving a Nation: The US’s Vengeful Siege on Cuba

Map of Cuba with inset of the West Indies.

Just over a year after the Cuban Revolution’s resounding victory, a secret memo from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Lester Mallory, dated 6 April 1960, exposes the cold calculus behind the United States’ decision to impose a trade embargo on Cuba. Mallory’s covert words reveal the brutal truth: Fidel Castro’s revolution enjoys broad popularity in Cuba, and with no effective opposition on the horizon, the only way...