World Affairs TODAY: Season 14, Episode 3- Author Series, Amb. Vicki Huddleston

On March 20, 2018, the World Affairs Council-Washington, DC hosted an Author Series with Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, author of “Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cuba.” Amb. Huddleston discusses the difficult history between Cuba and the United States, and how the past is still impacting the two countries’ interactions and diplomacy today.

From 1999-2002, Amb. Huddleston was stationed as a Principal Officer of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba – only the eighth to be given that position since President Jimmy Carter re-opened diplomatic relations in 1977. She was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy toward a Cuba in Transition from 2007 until 2009. A long-serving career foreign service officer with multiple postings, she has served as acting U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar (1995-1997) and Ambassador to Mali (2002-2005), as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.

Former State Department official Vicki Huddleston
speaking at the Hudson Library & Historical Society

Ambassador Vicki Huddleston speaks about her book “Our Woman In Havana” and takes questions from the audience.

AFSA Book Notes: Our Woman in Havana by Vicki Huddleston

On Friday, May 4th, AFSA welcomed Ambassador (ret.) Vicki Huddleston to discuss her new book, Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cuba.

Our Woman in Havana chronicles the past several decades of U.S.-Cuba relations from the bird’s-eye view of State Department veteran and longtime Cuba hand Vicki Huddleston, our top diplomat in Havana under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. After the U.S. embassy in Havana was closed in 1961, relations between the two countries broke off. A thaw came in 1977, with the opening of a de facto embassy in Havana, the U.S. Interests Section, where Huddleston would later serve. In her compelling memoir of a diplomat at work, she tells gripping stories of face-to-face encounters with Fidel Castro and the initiatives she undertook, like the transistor radios she furnished to ordinary Cubans. With inside accounts of many dramatic episodes, like the tumultuous Elián González custody battle, Huddleston also evokes the charm of the island country and her warm affection for the Cuban people.

Uniquely qualified to explain the inner workings of U.S.-Cuba relations, Huddleston examines the Obama administration’s diplomatic opening of 2014, the mysterious “sonic” brain and hearing injuries suffered by U.S. and Canadian diplomats who were serving in Havana, and the rescinding of the diplomatic opening under the Trump administration. Huddleston recounts missed opportunities for détente, and the myths, misconceptions, and lies that have long pervaded U.S.-Cuba relations. With Raúl Castro scheduled to step down this year, she also peers into the future, when for the first time in more than six decades no one named Castro will be Cuba’s leader.

KAC. Presentation at Kendall Art Center of the book “Our Woman in Havana” by Vicki Huddleston.

Kendall Art Center (KAC), is dedicated to promoting the work of contemporary artists, and to the exchange of art and ideas throughout the Miami region and internationally. Through an energetic calendar of exhibitions, programs, and its collections, KAC provides an international platform for the work of established and emerging artists, advancing the public appreciation and understanding of the art.