Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean

By Alex Von Tunzelmann

During the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, the United States and the USSR acted out the world's tensions in the Caribbean, using Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets. What neither superpower bargained on was that their puppets would come to life. Red Heat tells the gripping story of the men responsible for this rude surprise, including, from Cuba, the charismatic Fidel Castro and his mysterious brother Raúl; from Argentina, the ideologue Che Guevara; from the Dominican Republic, the capricious psychopath Rafael Trujillo; and from Haiti, François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, a buttoned-down doctor with interests in Vodou, embezzlement, and torture.

How did this handful of men, armed with little but words and ruthlessness, capture the world's attention during the 1950s and 60s? Alex von Tunzelmann shows her storytelling prowess yet again in a riveting narrative of clashing ideologies, the politics of fear, the machinations of superpowers, and — above all — the brazen daring of the mavericks who took them on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9780771087301

Alex Von Tunzelmann

Alex von Tunzelmann is the author of Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean and Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire. She was educated at Oxford and lives in London.

Reviews for Red Heat

[egonzaba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A must read for anyone who wants to understand the sure global reach of the Cold War. Expressed through the stories of five leaders of Cuba, the DR, and Haiti. Readers are sure to see a new historical perspective from an often-overlooked part of the world.

[robertmosher · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Red Hot Reading on the Cold War – “Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean” by Alex von TunzelmannIf you did not grow up during the height of the Cold War of the 1950s-1960s, rehearsing for nuclear Armageddon, or read every John Le Carre spy novel in First Editions, this tale of Cold War rivalry, conspiracy, confusion, and failure in the Caribbean (and Central and South America) may seem hard to believe. However, author Alex von Tunzelmann has delivered on the title’s promise of conspiracy and murder in the Caribbean. The result is an interesting work for the general reader and one that scholars will need to consider in future works on the subject.For years, authors have recounted these stories in accordance with the “print the legend” prescript of newspaper editor Maxwell Scott from “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”. “Red Heat” presents the story of how again and again, the Cold War rivalry between the US and the USSR led both to make decisions that would undercut democracy and its critical institutions in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and elsewhere in Central and South America. While Moscow and particularly Washington bear great responsibility for this, von Tunzelmann includes the contributions to this tale of the Duvaliers, the Trujillos, the Castros and other residents of these Caribbean nations.The author presents these intertwining stories in a roughly chronological narrative, with some diversions as she provides some backstory with details that enhance the reader’s understanding of events and personalities. Her prose is both energetic and reflective of a passion that is almost but not quite overwhelming at times. The text is supported by some 40 pages of endnotes providing additional details as well as identifying her sources. There is also an almost eight page long “selected bibliography” of source material.

[cao9415_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An outstanding overview of Cold War politics in the Caribbean theater. The United States, in its anticommunist zeal, found itself propping up such psychopathic, bloodthirsty despots as Duvalier in Haiti and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. "Red Heat" is the story of how American foreign policy helped destroy any chance democracy to emerge in Haiti and the Dominican Republic as well as elsewhere in the Caribbean and Latin American area. Extensive footnotes.

[fledgist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another take on the Cold War in the Caribbean and how it has entwined the histories of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. VonTunzelmann pays close and sensitive attention to the histories of slavery and racial dominance, as well as to the American and Soviet interventions in the region, which gives this volume real nuance. The author needs to fix some minor errors -- Vieques, for example, is not 'a Caribbean island republic' but an outlying island of Puerto Rico -- but it is an informative work, and its focus on the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs is not unhelpful given its broader context in the history of the Greater Antilles.

[rhodestorome · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Von Tunzelmann's publication on the Cold War in the Caribbean offers a different view than those you might usually find in books concerning the Cold War. Definitive in it's look at the histories of the Caribbean countries, particularly Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and, of course, Cuba, the book covers the issues usually associated with the Cold War in the Caribbean-the Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs, but also looks at the historical basis for these countries' association with Communism. It pays particular attention to slavery and colonial issues. Overall, a good read-- entertaining and lively.

[snash_44 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was an epiphany for me. By examining the Caribbean Cold War in depth including as much of the undercover activities as can be documented, it made to view several truths that have fluttered through my head, straight on. Mankind can be astonishingly cruel. No news or official word can be trusted at the time of events. Forming foreign policy on the basis of ideas is naive. The best of intentions can lead to horrors. The US is an imperialistic nation. I highly recommend the book but it is a disturbing one.

[sherman1951 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.That’s the take-away from Alex von Tunzelmann’s excellent history of the Cold War in the Caribbean. The leaders of Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic are showcased here as well as the limits of the superpowers in controlling puppet dictators.It is no secret that the Caribbean was a frontline of the Cold War, particularly in light of Castro’s alignment with the Soviet Union. While by the time of the Bay of Pigs Castro was clearly a Communist, the Eisenhower administration set in motion a series of foreign policy disasters that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. What sometimes is forgotten is the extent the U.S. government was involved in propping up psychopaths like Rafael Trujillo and “Papa Doc” Duvalier simply because they were useful (for a while) and weren’t Communists. Ms. Von Tunzelmann has written a highly readable history of America’s secret war near our own shores. While she makes too much of a footnote in history relating to planned Christmas time bombings of three major department stores, military installations, and oil refineries in the northeast U.S. the book is a good addition to our understanding of this aspect of the Cold War and the brink of nuclear war. The U.S. continues to prop up psychopaths (especially in the Middle East and Africa) now in the name of preventing terrorism.

[lamson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With the exception of two events, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Caribbean is not prominent on the Cold War stage. Red Heat could change that. It is a very readable account of this region during the 1950s and 1960s, highlighting missed opportunities that could have eased tension years earlier. Future Presidents should read and learn from Kennedy’s mistakes and not take information at face value, no matter the source.

[louisste_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Red Heat should be required reading for anyone with any interest in the Americas. It is refreshing to get a different perspective on the Cold War as it was played out in the Caribbean. Alex Tunzelmann does a tremendous job in building up the big picture of Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the 50’s and 60’s and US foreign policy efforts to control the region.