Deadly Business: Sam Cummings, Interarms, and the Arms Trade

The men with the golden guns Brogan, Patrick and Albert Zarca 1983 Deadly Business: Sam Cummings, Interarms, and the Arms Trade. W W Norton & Co, New York ISBN-10 0393017664 This book is most useful for studies of weaponry involved in Cuban history. For instance pp. 89-92 describe the weaponry (they used the AR-10) of the failed invasion of the Dominican Republic in which Castro rid himself of remains of Camilo Cienfuego's loyalists, and the only survivor was Arnaldo Ochoa. Ochoa as many will recall became the senior Cuban General in Africa, and was later executed by Castro. While none of these persons are mentioned, those who follow Cuban history will find them easy to identify from these pages. Some quibbles are found. For example details on Cuban history are fuzzy for instance on page 86 the authors state that Castro's insurgency in the Sierra Maestra lasted five years, this is only technically correct if Castro's 1953 escape from his attack on the Moncada Barracks is included. On the other hand, the authors' support of the lack of involvement in arms shipments from Venezuela to Castro during the insurgency (p. 92) is apparently correct in light of present public knowledge. I feel that the authors somewhat over-emphasized the real lack of reliability of the M-16 in the early years of its use in Vietnam (pp. 206-207) and presented little mention of the correction of the problem. I did not find direct confirmation of the legendary golden guns which are said to have been gifted by Sam Cummings to Batista, Castro, Trujillo; however, page 357 does mention gifts and souvenirs. One notes with amusement Cummings insights into the psyche of dictators illustrated by the Freudian undertones of such gifts. In all, this book is a most valuable resource for those who study the insurgencies of the last half of the twentieth century, and has so much has useful information, that these quibbles, while they should be noted, can be taken in stride.