Back Channel to Cuba

William M. LeoGrande is Professor of Government at American University in Washington, DC. He has written widely on Latin America and US-Latin American relations. He is the author of Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992, and co-author of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana. He is also co-editor of A Contemporary Cuba Reader: The Revolution Under Raúl Castro among other books. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Le Monde Diplomatique and other journals and newspapers.

Peter Kornbluh has worked at the National Security Archive, a specialized research center on declassified foreign policy documentation, for nearly 30 years, earning the title of Senior Analyst. He directs the Archive’s Cuba Documentation Project. In March 2001, he organized the 40th anniversary conference on the Bay of Pigs invasion which brought Kennedy White House officials, retired CIA officers, and former Cuban exile brigade members to Havana to meet with Fidel Castro; in October 2002, he organized the 40th anniversary conference in Havana on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kornbluh has served as a historical consultant on numerous documentary and Hollywood films, most recently working with Steven Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro on their bio-pic on Argentine revolutionary leader Che Guevara, a major figure of the Cuban Revolution. As a journalist/historian he is the lead correspondent on Cuba for the Nation magazine and has also written for many other publications, including Cigar Aficionado, Mother Jones, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and the New Yorker.

In addition to co-authoring Back Channel to Cuba, Kornbluh is the author of a number books including The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, which was named a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. He lives in Washington, DC.