The Great Game in Cuba
How the CIA Sabotaged Its Own Plot to Unseat Fidel Castro
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The Great Game in Cuba
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Narrated by:
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Katina Kalin
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By:
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Joan Mellen
About this listen
The Great Game in Cuba uses the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution to examine the CIA's inner workings during the '50s and '60s. Detailing the agency's lies and deceits, Mellen paints a vivid behind-the-scenes picture of the CIA in Cuba after the Castro revolution: what it wanted and the lengths it was willing to go to in order to paralyze the opposition to Fidel Castro.
The game begins with Robert J. Kleberg, Jr., proprietor of the legendary King Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the world. Kleberg's messianic ambitions bring him to Cuba, where he establishes a satellite ranch managed by his right-hand man, the James Bond-type character Michael J. P. Malone, who secretly reports to both the FBI and at least five CIA handlers.
From there the plot thickens as an array of Cubans share never-before-revealed information regarding the agency's activities in Cuba and its attempts to unseat Castro and install a CIA-friendly figurehead in his place. The mysterious disappearance of Camilo Cienfuegos, a major figure in Castro's government, is told here for the first time. The agency's shady dealings with a major US publication are uncovered.
A testament to the sheer volume of previously classified and untold information, The Great Game in Cuba is a story the world needs to hear.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2016 Joan Mellen (P)2016 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,591
John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the backdrop ofAmerican culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?
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4 out of 5 stars
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A duel biography
- By Jean on 09-26-14
By: Stephen Kinzer
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The Road Not Taken
- Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam
- By: Max Boot
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 312
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 268
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 269
In chronicling the adventurous life of legendary CIA operative Edward Lansdale, The Road Not Taken definitively reframes our understanding of the Vietnam War. In this epic biography of Edward Lansdale (1908-1987) best-selling historian Max Boot demonstrates how Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and mind" diplomacy, first in the Philippines, then in Vietnam. It was a visionary policy that, as Boot reveals, was ultimately crushed by America's giant military bureaucracy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An honest look at Vietnam Nam and USA
- By Catherine on 01-16-18
By: Max Boot
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Family of Secrets
- The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America
- By: Russ Baker
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 24 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 714
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 620
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 618
French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre said that "words are loaded pistols". In the hands of Russ Baker, they are hydrogen bombs. On each and every page of his masterpiece, Family of Secrets, he explodes the myths and lies that powerful forces have perpetrated on the American consciousness. He digs beneath the surface in a form of journalistic archeology to reveal the hidden history of one of America's most powerful families, leaving no stone unturned.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Still Relevant, Impossible to Put Down
- By Emilio Largo on 12-14-12
By: Russ Baker
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The Wonga Coup
- Guns, Thugs, and the Steely Determination to Create Mayhem
- By: Adam Roberts
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
With so little to recommend it, why in March 2004 was Equatorial Guinea the target of a group of salty British, South African, and Zimbabwean mercenaries, traveling on an American-registered ex-National Guard plane specially adapted for military purposes that was originally flown to Africa by American pilots?
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4 out of 5 stars
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Dictators and dogs of war, beware
- By PearlGirl on 11-05-06
By: Adam Roberts
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Red Heat
- Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean
- By: Alex von Tunzelmann
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 62
The Caribbean crises of the Cold War are revealed as never before in this riveting story of clashing ideologies, the rise of the politics of fear, the machinations of superpowers, and the daring of the brazen mavericks who took them on. The superpowers thought they could use Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, not extraordinary.
- By History on 10-24-11
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The Irregulars
- Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 514
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 306
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Story4 out of 5 stars 307
Prior to the U.S. entering WWII, a small coterie of British spies in Washington, D.C., was formed. They called themselves the Baker Street Irregulars after the band of street urchins who were the eyes and ears of Sherlock Holmes in some Arthur Conan Doyle stories.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Spying in Washington
- By Sara on 10-03-14
By: Jennet Conant
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Hitler in Los Angeles
- How Jews and Their Spies Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America
- By: Steve Ross
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 271
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 243
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 242
No American city was more important to the Nazis than Los Angeles, home to Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine in the world. The Nazis plotted to kill the city's Jews and to sabotage the nation's military installations: plans existed for hanging 20 prominent Hollywood figures such as Al Jolson, Charlie Chaplin, and Samuel Goldwyn; for driving through Boyle Heights and machine-gunning as many Jews as possible; and for blowing up defense installations and seizing munitions from National Guard armories along the Pacific Coast.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Phenomenal read!
- By Anonymous User on 12-07-17
By: Steve Ross
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Operation Snow
- How a Soviet Mole in FDR’s White House Triggered Pearl Harbor
- By: John Koster
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 278
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 255
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Story4 out of 5 stars 253
On December 7, 1941, the nation of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and prompted the United States’ entry into the bloodiest war in human history. Americans have long debated the cause of the bombing; many have argued that the attack was a brilliant Japanese military coup or a failure of US intelligence agencies or even a conspiracy of the Roosevelt administration. But despite the attention historians have paid to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the truth about that fateful day has remained a mystery - until now.
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1 out of 5 stars
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PUT IT IN THE FILE BLAMING FDR FOR PEARL HARBOR
- By Ron on 11-21-20
By: John Koster
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The Rockefellers
- By: Peter Collier, David Horowitz
- Narrated by: Michael Anthony
- Length: 30 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 57
Against a richly detailed backdrop of history, the story of this unique American family unfolds. It begins with John D. Rockefeller Sr., who amassed a fortune amid the muck and disorder of the Pennsylvania oil fields and left his son to deal with the public outcry.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Too Long
- By Rohit on 05-25-07
By: Peter Collier, and others
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King's Counsel
- A Memoir of War, Espionage, and Diplomacy in the Middle East
- By: Jack O'Connell
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
A CIA station chief, later Jordan's lawyer in Washington, reveals the secret history of a lost peace.
Jack O'Connell possessed an uncanny ability to be at the center of things. On his arrival in Jordan in 1958, he unraveled a coup aimed at the young King Hussein, who would become America's most reliable Middle East ally. Over time, their bond of trust and friendship deepened. His narrative contains secrets that will revise our understanding of the Middle East.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic Memoir - Decent ME Analysis
- By AB on 05-01-15
By: Jack O'Connell
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The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom
- America and China, 1776 to the Present
- By: John Pomfret
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 30 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 191
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 155
Our relationship with China remains one of the most complex and rapidly evolving and is perhaps one of the most important to our nation's future. Here, John Pomfret, the author of the best-selling Chinese Lessons, takes us deep into these two countries' shared history and illuminates in vibrant, stunning detail every major event, relationship, and ongoing development that has affected diplomacy between these two booming, influential nations.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Indispensable for understanding the US China relationship
- By D. Keith on 03-12-17
By: John Pomfret
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Hunting Evil
- The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice
- By: Guy Walters
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 145
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4 out of 5 stars 113
From its haunting chronicle of the monstrous mass murders the Nazis perpetrated and the murky details of their postwar existence to the challenges of hunting them down, Hunting Evil is a monumental work of nonfiction written with the pacing and intrigue of a thriller.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Eye-opening and riveting
- By Ellen on 10-20-10
By: Guy Walters
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A Kingdom of Their Own
- The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster
- By: Joshua Partlow
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fabulous
- By Charles S. on 10-23-23
By: Joshua Partlow
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Saudi, Inc.
- The Arabian Kingdom's Pursuit of Profit and Power
- By: Ellen R. Wald PhD
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
Over more than a century, fed by ambition and oil wealth, al Saud (as the royal family is known) has come from having next to nothing to ruling as absolute monarchs. Their story starts with Saudi Arabia's founder, the lowly refugee Abdul Aziz, embarking on a daring gambit to reconquer his family's ancestral home: the mud-walled city of Riyadh. And it ends with al Saud's most ambitious move yet: taking Aramco, the multinational business that has made them the wealthiest family in the world, public.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent modern history of Saudi Arabia
- By Rob Hafen on 05-31-18
What listeners say about The Great Game in Cuba
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Carlos Argueta
- 10-08-21
If you love contemporary history.. how we got here
Impressive, if you love contemporary history and how we got here.... this is the book for you. CIA and the Monroe Doctrine at its best 👌 how it has ruined the Americas 🌎 with so much deep details that left me wondering... How long is this failing policy will keep few corporations in power?
must read to the end.....
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- James Messelbeck
- 06-25-21
Puzzle coming together
Still cannot grasp how Dulles brothers permitted a communist government 90 miles from US while going all in in Vietnam. A nearby and convenient existential risk vs remote and hypothetical risk. I’m happy no invasion of Cuba but sad for extreme loss of lives in Vietnam. This book added several puzzle pieces but complete picture remains blurry.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Molly Meredith
- 02-12-22
Gems of history in the story………. Told by a drunk A.I.
This story starts with no premise and never once tries to ground the audience in the story…… it’s like being told a story in a direct stream of consciousness by a robot!
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- matthew berghuis
- 07-12-21
Creative nonfiction at best.
An interesting but meandering story, and all the statements should be fact checked before being accepted as correct. I discovered two factual inaccuracies with another pair being quoted by authors who's credibility is highly suspect.
After that I took what the author claimed with a grain of salt. It really is creative nonfiction full of unsubstantiated claims. Mellon is clearly biased against the CIA, however she backs up very few of her claims with documentation instead relying on vague references to first person interviews.
This an interesting tale, but far more opinion and story telling than a work of historical significance.
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