Piero Gleijeses, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, has published extensively on Cuba, southern Africa, and US foreign policy. His books include Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954 and Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991.
Under Fidel Castro, Cuba backed independence movements across the Third World. This support was decisive in battling South African apartheid, thwarting US covert operations, and securing self-rule across southern Africa.