Trump’s Cuba report borrowed heavily from my book on an anti-imperialist movement – but twisted the arguments

The State Department views a 1960s-era internationalist movement based in Havana as a Cuban communist plot to destroy America. The truth was far more nuanced.

By: Anne Garland Mahler, University of Virginia, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: August 25, 2026

Words: 1,270

Last Updated: 1 month, 3 weeks ago

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By Anne Garland Mahler, University of Virginia

For decades after the Cuban Revolution’s victory in 1959, influential anticommunist circles in the United States claimed that Cuba’s communist government sowed social division and allied with left-wing groups to help defeat Washington during the Cold War.

This right-wing rhetoric has been revived in the Trump State Department’s July 20, 2026, report, “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” In it, the administration seizes on the history …

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