Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s

As Simon Hall relates in this romp of a Cold War caper, Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s, Fidel Castro and his sizable Cuban delegation, arriving in New York City on September 18, 1960, to attend the 15th United Nations General Assembly, first landed a block of rooms at the Shelburne (each for $20 a night, or $180 in today's money) on Lexington Avenue, in the island's midtown section, while Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had far swankier confines over on Park Avenue. In less than 24 hours, crazy rumors abounded that the cigar-chomping (and ash-dropping!) Cubans were roasting chickens in their suites. Responding to other guests who complained about the unruly Cuban customs, the hotel manager banned the delegation from the hotel's cafeteria. When a news reporter asked about crime in the city's iconic Central Park, Castro wondered sardonically, “How can there be...