The author of the Arabic-language book from which this excerpt has been translated, Ahmed Sa‘id (1925-2018), was from 1953 until the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War the inaugural director and main announcer of the Cairo-based Arab nationalist Sawt al-‘Arab. This radio was a crucial public relations instrumentfor the post-revolutionary Egyptian government and the by far most popular station in the Arab world in the 1950s-60s. Consequently, Sa‘id was a household name to Arabs.

While most Arabic books on non-Arab decolonization movements and, related, anti-imperialistmovements in the 1950s and 1960s concerned African states, there was much interest in other countries, too. One was Cuba, where a revolution that had started in 1953 succeeded on January 1, 1959. For realpolitik reasons Cuba early on became a Soviet ally, and eventually in the 1960s turned communist, though it continued to pursue a rather fiercely independent foreign policy including armed engagements in Africa, as Piero Gleijeses’ Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 (2003) showed. Egypt, on the other hand, repressed its domestic communists, though entertaining considerable ties with the USSR and defining itself as a socialist state. Thus, when Sa‘id accepted a Cuban invitation to attend the revolution’s second anniversary celebration, it was not leftism that attracted him most. Rather, he in this book depicted Cubans as fellow fighters in a continuous revolution against US-led imperialism, a political battle superseding any cultural or linguistic differences.

Mao describes the history of Western imperialism in China and discusses ways that people around the world are opposing imperialism. He pledges to support the anti-imperialist struggle in Africa and calls for unity. (Note: in this 1968 edition, the names of a Cuban national hero and his younger brother [presumably Fidel and Raul Castro] are redacted.)

The Cuban Foreign Minister addressed the following issues in a talk: Cuban-Uruguay relations, Cuban-Mexican relations, Asian-African-Western European relations, Cuban-Soviet-US negotiations in UN, anti-imperialism and anti-revisionism, and the Cuban Embassy's work in China.

Chargé d’Affaires ad Interim Erzsébet Görög reports on Algerian Prime Minister Ben Bella’s visit to Havana. Before Ben Bella’s arrival, Cuban press highlighted the common experiences of Algerian and Cuban national independence. Görög describes Ben Bella’s reception at the airport and speeches given by Castro and Ben Bella. For example, Castro used clear Marxist terminology in his remarks while Ben Bella spoke of social progress and the common.

Raúl Roa is the head of the Cuban delegation to the preparatory conference for the upcoming non-aligned countries conference. Roa invited all the diplomats of socialist countries to his mansion for lunch on June 9. He informed the diplomats about the different groups established in the conference concerning their opinions on revisionism. On one hand, was India, Cambodia, Nepal, Burma, Algeria and Yugoslavia. All of them request that there will be no display of anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist spirit at the conference. On the other hand, Cuba, Guinea, Mali, Ghana, Ceylon, and to a certain extent the UAR and Iraq, requested that there should be anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist discourse during the conference. Roa also informed that Belgrade was decided upon to be the location of the conference. At first upon hearing that Belgrade would be the location Roa hesitated, but later he decided to participate in order to create a “left-wing” group with anti-imperialist character in the conference. He received the recommendation for the creation of this group from the Soviet, Chinese and Czech delegations. After the meeting, Malile was informed that Roa has prolonged his stay in Cairo because the Arabs and Indians agreed jointly to make some changes to the conference documents during their printing. Roa intended to stay in order to halt these actions.

Conversation for the record between Zhivkov and Castro during a four-day-long state visit of the Cuban leader to Bulgaria. Among the main issues discussed was the state of economic development in both countries, their relations with Albania, China, Romania and Yugoslavia; the Cuban foreign policy in Africa and the Caribbean; the civil war in Angola; the battle for the Third World.