Covert City The Cold War and the making of Miami

To those for whom Miami conjures retirement, sun worship, and tourism, Houghton and Driggs would like to introduce another side: den of spies. Starting with the first influx of refugees from Cuba in 1959, Miami became two cities: one a tropical getaway, the other a hotbed of intrigue that came to dominate U.S. life. Cuban exiles used their adopted home to plot the overthrow of Fidel Castro with determined single-mindedness. An attempt to invade their native island and the subsequent Cuban Missile Crisis focused American intelligence efforts not only to oppose Castro but to control the exiles' aggressive tactics and thwart the Soviet Union from using nuclear might to protect their client state. The CIA established a Miami office to ensure the flow of information to Washington. In Houghton and Driggs' telling, Castro used successive waves of Cubans into Miami to influence U.S. domestic and foreign policy across succeeding presidential administrations. The authors relate this intriguing story in the dramatic, provocative cadences of reality television, which will entertain fans of spy novels and histories.

In this vigorous chronicle, historian Houghton (Nuking the Moon) and Driggs, a former Cuba analyst at the University of Miami, recap the duel between communist Cuba and the anticommunist Cuban exiles who fled to Miami following the country's 1959 revolution. The exiles played a key part in the U.S. government's efforts to oust Castro--furnishing the doomed foot soldiers of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, conducting raids against Cuban infrastructure, and staging provocations like taking a shot at the UN headquarters in Manhattan with a bazooka while Che Guevara was speaking there in 1964. Meanwhile Castro used the diaspora as cover for spies--by some measures, according to the authors, the Cuban intelligence service is now the world's most formidable, having infiltrated the U.S. government to an extreme degree; Cuba makes use of the intelligence gathered as a tradeable commodity. Later chapters explore Miami's role as a hothouse of misadventure, including a bumbling 2020 coup attempt that tried to overthrow the Venezuelan government with 58 men and 10 rifles. The authors maintain a sympathetic attitude toward Cuban exile militants, treating them more as genuine pro-democracy patriots than pawns of American imperialism. Miami itself features mainly as a backdrop to their exploits, which unfold in colorful scenes of paramilitary operations. Lucid and entertaining, this adventuresome account covers well-trod ground with panache. (Apr.)

A history of American-supported covert operations undertaken by Cuban exiles against Castro's communist regime. Although Houghton and Driggs claim that "this book is partially a retelling of the Cold War through the lens of our hometown, Miami," the city is seldom discussed. Miami was a place where anti-Cuban CIA operations were headquartered, Cuban exiles were recruited and trained, Cuban refugees (and spies) took up residence, and propaganda was crafted, but this hardly makes Miami "a city built by spies." Furthermore, claiming that it was "a clandestine battleground for intelligence" seems an exaggeration. Although U.S.-backed counterinsurgency efforts directed at Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Bolivia had ties to Miami, this still does not raise the city to the status the authors claim for it. Houghton and Driggs focus on the efforts by Cuban exiles, between 1959 and 1989, to overthrow the Castro government and the involvement of the U.S. government in enabling clandestine operations and welcoming (or not) Cuban refugees. In doing so, the authors chronicle the details of a number of well-known historical events: the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, the Mariel boatlift that brought approximately 125,000 refugees to the U.S. in 1980, and the 1999 controversy over returning 5-year-old Elián González to his father in Cuba. However, the authors never create a strong enough framework to give these tales broader significance appropriate to the Cold War theme. Houghton and Driggs clearly understand the recent history of Miami and intelligence initiatives, have a wealth of knowledge about the many organizations and individuals in the Cuban exile community, and deftly reveal the roots of U.S.-Cuban political power, but they do not provide the perspective that would make Miami credible as a "covert city." An adequate account of a failed attempt at regime change and the ineffectiveness of Cold War spycraft. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.