Articles written by Vicki Huddleston

Intelligence Matters - CBS News

Vicki Huddleston talks with Michael Morell on Intelligence Matters CBS…
Read more
cuba without castro

A Cuba without a Castro

I first met Fidel Castro in 1991, shortly after I became the U.S. State Department’s lead diplomat on Cuba. I had traveled from Washington to Havana for a celebration marking Mr. Castro’s withdrawal of 50,000 Cuban troops from southern Africa. At 64, his famous beard was greying, but he was still a handsome man, over six feet tall, with a booming voice and charismatic presence.
Read more

As Castro era ends in Cuba, so should the U.S. embargo

Raúl Castro is expected to step down as president of Cuba on Thursday. His handpicked successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is likely to be appointed by the National Assembly of People's Power soon afterward. For the first time in more than half a century, the island will be led by someone not named Castro.
Read more

Trump Is Returning Cuba Policy to the Cold War

A little more than a year ago, Cubans were exulting in the normalization of relations between their country and the United States after decades of trade and travel barriers. But on a recent trip to Havana, I found Cubans dismayed by President Trump’s reversal of the détente started by his predecessor, Barack Obama. Mr. Trump had appealed to older Cuban-Americans by taking a tough stance against the Castro regime on the campaign trail, and they helped him carry Florida in the 2016 election.
Read more
we must help save Mali

Why We Must Help Save Mali

America, which has spent more than $500 million over the last four years to keep Islamist militants at bay in West Africa, has its hands full in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, and Libya, among other places, but it is in our national interest to support the French. North African countries, in particular, Algeria, must also help save Mali from catastrophe.
Read more

A Retreat on Cuba Policy

“Can Trump Compete With Obama on Cuba?,” by Jorge I. Domínguez…
Read more
Joseph Hart

Don’t Turn on Ethiopia

NINE years ago, two nations began the first modern war in sub-Saharan Africa, leaving in two years more than 100,000 dead. Today Eritrea and Ethiopia could reignite their old border conflict. Arms and money from radicals throughout the Middle East, as well as troops trained in Eritrea, have strengthened an insurgency in Ogaden Province, in southeastern Ethiopia.
Read more
Cuba & Haiti

2015: The Year of Change for Cuba and Haiti

Cuba and Haiti — two Caribbean island neighbors separated by the Windward Passage — are worlds apart. Cuba is an example of failed communism; Haiti of failed capitalism. If either country is to progress, it will have to significantly change its political and economic system. Both islands have impressive histories: Haiti is the world’s only example of a successful slave revolt and Cuba was Spain’s Pearl of the Caribbean.
Read more
move forward with cuba

Move Forward With Cuba

When President Obama announced that the United States would normalize relations with Cuba, he quoted a Cuban saying — “No es fácil,” or “It won’t be easy” — to emphasize the long road ahead in discarding a more than 50-year-old policy. Mr. Obama’s historic announcement has provided the foundation for a vastly improved relationship. But ensuring that the new relationship prospers and becomes an engine for a democratic and stable Cuba will not be easy.
Read more
maine monument eagle

How Not to Promote Democracy in Cuba

President Bush yesterday made a case for bringing democracy to Cuba. Yet by telling the Cuban people not to expect help from the U.S. until they have made Cuba free, and by refusing to make any substantive change to U.S. policy, he is actually forestalling democratization. In his speech at the State Department, Bush offered several carrots to the Cuban people: computers and Internet access; scholarships through the Partnership for Latin American Youth; and, most significant, access to grants, loans and debt relief provided by a multibillion-dollar “Freedom Fund for Cuba.”
Read more

Articles & Interviews featuring Vicki Huddleston

Vicki Huddleston Wins Special Peace Corps Writers Award For RPCVs 2019 (Peru)

Ambassador Vicki Huddleston (Peru 1964-66) served under Presidents…

Intelligence Matters - CBS News

Vicki Huddleston talks with Michael Morell on Intelligence Matters CBS…
vicki huddleston

"Trump's policy is tragic for the Cuban people"

Vicki Huddleston was the first female representative of the United States in Cuba, as head of its Interests Section in Havana from 1999 to 2002 - again as ambassador since 2015. Vicki presented her book Our Woman in Havana on Tuesday in Miami, a memoir of her diplomatic mission on the communist island politically substantial and with crazy nonsense on a personal level. This interview is published in Spanish.

_read the full article

Jousting with Fidel

SAIS alum Vicki Huddleston reflects on her experience as informal ambassador to Cuba and her tense relationship with Fidel Castro Vicki Huddleston once got into a fight with Fidel Castro over her dog. Granted, it was a dispute waged by proxy, but the Cuban dictator did seem personally involved. Here is what happened. From 1999 to 2002, Huddleston, SAIS '75 (MA), was director of the United States Interests Section in Havana, which, in the absence of formal diplomatic relations, made her the equivalent of the U.S. ambassador. She owned an Afghan hound she had named Havana, which she liked to enter in dog shows.

_read the full article