‘Something that apparently troubles the Cubans significantly’: Jimmy Carter’s attempt to pressure Cuba ‘out of Africa’ through the Non-Aligned Movement, 1977-78

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the literature on the US’ and Cuba’s ‘conflicting missions’ in Africa by focusing on a little-known (and failed) attempt by the Jimmy Carter administration, particularly between late 1977 and the summer of 1978, to mobilize the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to pressure Cuba ‘out of Africa’. Based on a wide array of both primary and secondary sources, including declassified documents from US and French archives, this article shows that the Carter administration deployed a tactic, as yet virtually unexplored, to achieve its goal by attempting to bring about a diplomatic encirclement of Cuba in the Third World. This was particularly in the Non-Aligned Movement, of which Havana was scheduled to host the Sixth Summit conference in 1979. This essay enriches our understanding of Carter’s approach to one of the issues which defined his presidency and sheds new light on his administration’s interactions both with Cuba and with the NAM.