These books, written from sharply different perspectives, highlight the need for informed and dispassionate analysis of Cuba's international role and its relations with the United States. Brenner, a long-time proponent of a U.S. initiative to normalize relations with Cuba, argues persuasively that U.S. policy toward the Castro regime has failed to achieve its objectives. But his hopeful suggestion for a "sensible policy" is ultimately unconvincing because he fails to address Cuba's motives and policies with the same critical independence he shows in analyzing U.S. approaches. Fontaine, a former National Security Council official in the first Reagan Administration and then a diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Times, mars his potentially illuminating, detailed account of Cuba's alleged relations with terrorist movements by engaging in crude psychohistory, broad-brush polemic, and unsubstantiated assertions.
