Covert City, Vince Houghton
Covert City, Vince Houghton
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Covert City
The Cold War and the Making of Miami

Author: Vince Houghton, Eric Driggs

Narrator: Eric Driggs, Vince Houghton

Unabridged: 8 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 04/23/2024


Synopsis

Secret operations, corruption, crime, and a city teeming with spies: why Miami was as crucial to winning the Cold War as Washington DC or Moscow.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was perhaps the most dramatic and dangerous period of the Cold War. What's less well known is that the city of Miami, mere miles away, was a pivotal, though less well known, part of Cold War history. With its population of Communist exiles from Cuba, its strategic value for military operations, and its lax business laws, Miami was an ideal environment for espionage.

Covert City tells the history of how the entire city of Miami was constructed in the image of the US-Cuba rivalry. From the Bay of Pigs invasion to the death of Fidel Castro, the book shows how Miami is a hub for money and cocaine but also secrets and ideologies. Cuban exiles built criminal and political organizations in the city, leading Washington to set up a CIA station there, codenamed JMWAVE. It monitored gang activities, plotted secret operations against Castro, and became a base for surveilling Latin American neighbors. The money and infrastructure built for the CIA was integral to the development of Miami.

Covert City is a sweeping and entertaining history, full of stunning experimental operations and colorful characters--a story of a place like no other.

About Vince Houghton

Vincent Houghton, PhD, is the historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. A veteran of the United States Army, he has written and appears as an expert for various media, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Associated Press, USA Today, The Economist, Vanity Fair, NPR, BBC, NBC News, Fox News, the History Channel, and the Travel Channel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brendan on February 07, 2024

Do you want to have a few chuckles about the Cold War? Well then come on down to read Vince Houghton and Eric Driggs' Covert City. The book looks at the Cold War mostly as it pertains to the city of Miami. I say mostly because the book is a little all over the place. Let's start with the good. Hought......more

Goodreads review by Scott on May 05, 2024

I have been looking forward to this book ever since Vince described the concept on a podcast 4-5 years ago and it was everything I was hoping for. Would love to see this concept of intelligence history wrapped around other cities such as New Orleans or Vegas that have rich stories to tell and aren't......more

Goodreads review by Blane on July 11, 2024

Dry and generally uninspired survey of Cold War-related incidents that (for the most part) emphasize the interconnections between Miami and Fidel's Cuban regime from roughly the late 1950s and the early 21st century. Most of these I knew from other prior research and just paying attention to the new......more

Goodreads review by Seth on May 27, 2024

Living in Miami, the book clarifies for me the Cuban migration history to this city from 1959 to the present day. Regime change from the Castros to representative democracy has always been an objective, but never achieved. At least, immigration has occurred with the implicit and explicit assent of t......more

Goodreads review by Jesse on July 24, 2024

Florida has a propensity for the over the top. See an insane headline in a US newspaper? It would be a safe bet to say it took place in Florida. So it makes perfect sense that this rollickingly fun little history of the Cold War (and beyond) in Miami is suffused with the ridiculous. I was expecting......more