Introduction

Abstract

In this deftly argued book, Moe Taylor examines the flourishing relationship between North Korea, Cuba, and the Latin American Left through the 1960s. Beginning with the Cuban Revolution, which represented North Korea’s first phase of major engagement with the region, both nations found common ground in the belief that the hopes of the international Left relied on an anti-imperialist, anti-US united front – a global campaign of guerrilla warfare against US power. This special partnership included a joint programme to train, arm, and finance revolutionary movements throughout Latin America. In the process, North Korea became an important influence on Cuban and Latin American left-wing discourse on matters of economic development, revolutionary organization and strategy, democracy, and leadership. Both nations pioneered a new Third Worldist political phenomenon – Tricontinentalism – that challenged Soviet and Chinese leaderships over the international communist movement and injected a fiercely radical current into the left-wing and anti-colonial movements of the global South.