Whose Man in Havana?

Adventures from the Far Side of Diplomacy

By John W. Graham
Foreword by Robert Bothwell
Series: Latin American and Caribbean
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Paperback : 9781552388242, 328 pages, November 2015
Ebook (PDF) : 9781552388266, 328 pages, November 2015
Ebook (EPUB) : 9781552388273, 328 pages, November 2015
Ebook (Kindle) : 9781552388280, 328 pages, November 2015

Table of contents

 

Foreword
Robert Bothwell
Preface

Book One

Dominican Republic
Voyage to a Different Planet
Leopold?s List
Darkness at Noon
The Dictator?s Sarcophagus
"Down with Those Who Rise"
Navidad con Libertad
Meatballs, Moose Piss, and the National Day

Cuba
Whose Man in Havana?

United Kingdom
The Thames, Bunnies, and Bicycles

Japan
Sake and the Advancement of Cultural Diplomacy

Guyana
Caviar and Christmas Trees
The Phantom Saboteur
Alcide
Three–Piece
"Will the Dynamite Explode if I . . ."
The State Funeral of the Honourable Linden Forbes Burnham

Suriname
Clothes Make the Man
Jewels of the Forest

Trinidad and Tobago
Me, Mick Jagger, Jungle Fever, and the Legion of Evil

Grenada
Pierre Trudeau and the Embarrassment of a Full Scale American War against a Very Small Island

Haiti
Le Chie est Mort

Central America and Columbia
Go By Boat: Travels with Allan MacEachen

Panama
The General and Margot Fonteyn

Central America
Fireworks and Foreign Policy

Venezuela, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic
A is for Aristide
Between Brazil and Venezuela: Caipirinhas, Trestle Bridges, and Formula One Bus Drivers
Beauty and the Official Beast: The Miss Venezuela Contest

Book Two

Dominican Republic
Stepping Back from the Precipice

Haiti
"The Pencil of God Has No Eraser" I
"The Pencil of God Has No Eraser&quot II

Bosnia
Black Past, Grey Future?
Sex, Sports, and Diplomacy
The Psychologist, the General, and the Beauty Contest
More Generals and the Ice Cream Man
The Road to Srebrenica

Paraguay
El Supremo

Kyrgyzstan
Boiling Toilets and Fermented Mare?s Milk

Guatemala
San Marcos and the Elections of 2003

Venezuela
Hugo Chavez: Much Loved, Much Loathed

Ukraine
Night train to Ternopil

Palestine
Good Elections, Bad Judgement

Nicaragua
The Jaguar Changes Some of Its Spots

El Salvador
Off the Beaten Track

Haiti
Goudeau–Goudeau: Return to Haiti
Lou Quinn: A Profile

Afterward
Notes
Index

Description

In Whose Man in Havana? the author offers an unconventional, often dark, but more often hilarious view of diplomacy in settings as varied as Haiti, London, the Dominican Republic, the Balkans, Palestine, Paraguay, Guyana, and Kyrgyzstan, including covert monitoring of Soviet military operations in Cuba on behalf of the CIA with the blessing of President Kennedy and Prime Minister Pearson. In a career that spans the Canadian foreign service and international organizations, he was fortunate to be in the right place at interesting, if turbulent, times. Throughout the book he has focussed on the lighter side of people and places, but almost everywhere the dark side intrudes. Graham makes plain that the intersection of the two is frequently black comedy.

"Brilliant...from one of the foreign service's best raconteurs." James Bartleman, author of Roller Coaster and Out of Muskoka, former ambassador and former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario.

"Splendidly written and marvellously funny." Robert Bothwell, University of Toronto, co-author of Pirouette and the Penguin History of Canada.

"A rollicking, engaging memoir ... a feast of colourful tales that don't quite obscure a serious piece of work on the diplomacy of the period... writing of the highest order." Paul Durand, former ambassador and international mediator.