The Cuban Connection: Nixon, Castro, and the Mob
Turner, a former FBI agent, assisted Jim Garrison in his dramatic prosecution of Clay Shaw for the murder of JFK and claimed RFK was murdered as part of a conspiracy. So his credibility as an objective journalist is questionable. Here Turner examines the meeting of Fidel Castro with Vice President Nixon in April 1959. According to Turner, Castro came to the meeting wary but hoping to establish good relations with the U.S. But Castro felt snubbed by President Eisenhower and found Nixon hostile. Of course, that directly contradicts other accounts of the meeting, and it also suggests Castro developed his anti-American crusade because his feelings were hurt. Turner also takes some Olympian leaps in connecting Nixon directly with Mob figures. This book will be red meat for conspiracy-mongers and blame-America enthusiasts, but it isn’t serious history. --Jay Freeman