{"id":6107,"date":"2016-10-03T10:06:26","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T14:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6107"},"modified":"2016-10-03T10:06:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T14:06:26","slug":"ghosts-of-havana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6107","title":{"rendered":"****Ghosts of Havana"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"havana,

photo: Les Haines, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

By Todd Moss – The long tail of the 1961 U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion\u00a0 disaster swings around to sting a married couple in this fast-paced political thriller\u2014third in a series by former U.S. State Department diplomat Todd Moss.<\/p>\n

With his insider\u2019s background, Moss believably portrays the interdepartmental rivalries inside the Washington Beltway, where high-stakes diplomacy faces off against the less, shall we say, conventional means of asserting American interests deployed by the rival Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).<\/p>\n

Moss\u2019s protagonist, in these novels, is former Amherst College professor Judd Ryker. He developed a political theory suggesting that, in times of a country\u2019s destabilization\u2014whether because of natural calamity or military coup or political upheaval\u2014quick U.S. intervention can help mold the new status quo to fit American interests. He\u2019s been brought into the State Department to create a one-man Crisis Reaction Unit. In other words, to put his theory to the test. Not surprisingly, the State Department\u2019s career diplomats are not interested in this outsider\u2019s theories, and do all they can, by foot-dragging and outright sabotage, to assure he fails.<\/p>\n

Judd\u2019s wife Jessica has what he has been led to believe is a job in international relief efforts. As this book opens, she has just revealed that she works for the CIA. In fact, she heads a super-secret unit that operates with total independence and is available for various tricky problem-solving tasks around the world.<\/p>\n

Now that Jessica\u2019s responsibilities are out in the open, the couple has agreed on three fundamentals going forward: they will assist<\/em> each other whenever possible; they will avoid<\/em> working on the same problem whenever they can; and they will admit<\/em> to each other when a situation arises that they cannot follow through with assist or avoid. Relevant to all three of these is a commitment to always tell each other the truth, even though at times they may need to keep their employers\u2019 secrets. Like so many principles, stating them turns out to be easier than living them.<\/p>\n

Within three days, Jessica counts up at least eight lies she\u2019s told Judd already. Yet, at the same time, he\u2019s reassuring her that he\u2019s in his State Department office, when he\u2019s actually headed to Gaunt\u00e1namo Bay Naval Base to meet with the shadowy director of Cuban intelligence.<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s top leaders are elderly. Sick too. There\u2019s every reason to believe that a moment of disruption\u2014of the kind Judd believes is ripe for positive intervention\u2014is imminent. His trip to Cuba is the first step, though the stated reason for the meeting is to extricate four Americans caught on a fishing boat in Cuban waters.<\/p>\n

Moss gives a sharp, up-to-the-minute feel in terms of crazy politics, self-serving politicos, and mainstream diplomatic strategists trying to keep the lid on. Throughout, he does a great job in showing the discrepancy between the way events are played for the public and the reality of the situation as Judd and Jessica perceive it. It\u2019s enough to make you look at the nightly news with an even more skeptical eye!
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