#7 - Evaluation of authority and currency of book in post #3

William LeoGrande, the author of Back channel to Cuba: the hidden history of negotiations between Washington and Havana, is a Professor in the Department of Government at the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, DC.  His university website says he is “…a specialist in Latin American politics and U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America, Professor LeoGrande has been a frequent adviser to government and private sector agencies. He has written five books, including Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977 – 1992. Most recently, he is coauthor of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana. Previously, he served on the staffs of the Democratic Policy Committee of the United States Senate, and the Democratic Caucus Task Force on Central America of the United States House of Representatives. Professor LeoGrande has been a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, and a Pew Faculty Fellow in International Affairs. His articles have appeared in various international and national journals, magazines and newspapers.”  http://www.american.edu/spa/faculty/wleogra.cfm

Amazon.com also indicates that Leogrande received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. https://www.amazon.com/Back-Channel-Cuba-Negotiations-Washington/dp/1469617633

Peter Kornbluh, the co-author of Back channel to Cuba, directs the Cuba Documentation Project and the Chile Documentation Project at the National Security Archive in Washington, DC, and is also the author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability. https://www.thenation.com/authors/peter-kornbluh/

Based on these credentials, both LeoGrande and Kornbluh seem well qualified to provide information on political relations between Cuba and the United States.

This book was published in 2014, and relations between Cuba and the United States have changed significantly since then as a result of President Barack Obama’s new policies.  Any discussion of Cuba/U.S. relations could use this book as a good background source, but it would have to be supplemented by 2015 and 2016 publications that take into account President Obama’s new policies toward Cuba.