#atozchallenge: U is for The Untold History

Here's to a great AtoZ!

Join in the FUN.


This year I traveled to Cuba. You know, it's that little island that's spitting distance from Florida and should not be visited without special dispensation. I wanted to see it before MacDonald's arrived. I'm so glad I did. I learned a lot and I met some wonderful people. It seems they like us. Now there's a change!

I'll add a short T/F quiz to each post the same as I did last year about Burma, and I'll post the answers to the questions the following day. 




Answers to your T/F Quiz for T


FALSE 1. Thirteen Days is obviously a U.S. view of the situation, but it's not true that there are no other personal accounts available to draw from. The tape-recorded memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev were smuggled to the West, transcribed, and published in 1970. Later more of his side of the story was published in 1990.
TRUE 2. At one time during the crisis, a high ranking member of the USSR military in Cuba could have launched missiles at the U.S. And this was the most disturbing thing I learned. I'd never heard of the guy. He could have been a nut case with his finger on the red button. Pay attention to history. It does have some lessons for us all. 


U is for the Untold Story


Like everyone on our planet, I've known about Guantanamo (GITMO), but it was just a place on an island that I knew little about, except from the news. Since the Bush administration's War on Terrorism turned it into the center for civil rights violations, I've heard the horror stories that will haunt our country forever. However, I didn't know how it came to be established in the first place. Before I left on my trip, I had to find out, and so I read this book about the Untold Story. 

If you read my G post, you'll see the mention of Theodore Roosevelt and the Spanish-American War. And if you read that post and took the quiz, you now know that the U.S. has had a permanent military base at Guantanamo since 1898. It seems the Cubans can't get rid of us. Of course, now that Venezuela can no longer provide aide, guess who the Castros are looking to for financial support again? Let's see the hands.



Your T/F Quiz for U
 
1. One of reasons for the continuation of the U.S. presence at GITMO, stems           from the Cold War era when we feared the Russians and their ties with               Castro.
2. Only 485 miles separate Florida from Guantanamo.

Answers tomorrow.Beware the White Rabbit (Anthology: They Call Me Alice), Leap Books, Summer '15
Sliding on the Edge, C. Lee McKenzie, WestSide Books, Spring '09
The Princess of Las Pulgas, WestSide Books, Fall '10
The First Time, Fall '11 (Anthology story: Premeditated Cat)
Alligators Overhead, Outskirts Press, Fall '12
Two and Twenty Dark Tales (Anthology story: Into the Sea of Dew