Cold War Puerto Rico
Anti-Communism in Washington's Caribbean Colony
Published on 1. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
280 pages
978-1-62534-948-4 (ISBN)
Description
A gripping history of FBI surveillance, political repression, and the fight for Puerto Rican independence
In the 1940s, with the construction of a naval base and a bombing range, Puerto Rico became a major geo-political military outpost for the United States. For a power claiming global leadership in a decolonizing world, however, the archipelago's colonial condition underscored the dissonance between American democratic rhetoric and its imperial reality. The solution was a deal that, in 1952, gave Puerto Rico a degree of self-government without changing its legal status as an "unincorporated" US territory. The US then publicly claimed Puerto Rico was now more autonomous while using repressive tactics such as FBI surveillance, arrests, destabilization, and other methods developed in Washington to silence activists and political parties pushing for full independence.
In Cold War Puerto Rico, Steve Howell examines how J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI targeted Puerto Rican communists as part of an offensive against pro-independence parties and activists generally. Howell's US-born father, who fell afoul of Hoover for producing radical cartoons while working in San Juan in the 1940s, remained on the FBI's watch list long after exiling himself in Britain. His close friends, the Puerto Rican author Cesar Andreu Iglesias and Jane Speed de Andreu, were meanwhile arrested and imprisoned three times during the 1950s. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, including interviews and FBI files, Howell tells their stories along with those of other activists who battled indictment in 1954 under the Smith Act, challenged the jurisdiction of the House Un-American Activities Committee in San Juan in 1959, and revived the Puerto Rican independence movement in the 1960s, despite the FBI deploying the covert tactics of COINTELPRO against them.
Puerto Rico is virtually invisible in histories of what is generally called McCarthyism, yet anti-communist repression was in many ways more intense there than in the mainland US. Now, with Puerto Rico's future currently hanging in the balance, Howell's compelling history demonstrates why we need to understand the long enforcement of its colonial status.
In the 1940s, with the construction of a naval base and a bombing range, Puerto Rico became a major geo-political military outpost for the United States. For a power claiming global leadership in a decolonizing world, however, the archipelago's colonial condition underscored the dissonance between American democratic rhetoric and its imperial reality. The solution was a deal that, in 1952, gave Puerto Rico a degree of self-government without changing its legal status as an "unincorporated" US territory. The US then publicly claimed Puerto Rico was now more autonomous while using repressive tactics such as FBI surveillance, arrests, destabilization, and other methods developed in Washington to silence activists and political parties pushing for full independence.
In Cold War Puerto Rico, Steve Howell examines how J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI targeted Puerto Rican communists as part of an offensive against pro-independence parties and activists generally. Howell's US-born father, who fell afoul of Hoover for producing radical cartoons while working in San Juan in the 1940s, remained on the FBI's watch list long after exiling himself in Britain. His close friends, the Puerto Rican author Cesar Andreu Iglesias and Jane Speed de Andreu, were meanwhile arrested and imprisoned three times during the 1950s. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, including interviews and FBI files, Howell tells their stories along with those of other activists who battled indictment in 1954 under the Smith Act, challenged the jurisdiction of the House Un-American Activities Committee in San Juan in 1959, and revived the Puerto Rican independence movement in the 1960s, despite the FBI deploying the covert tactics of COINTELPRO against them.
Puerto Rico is virtually invisible in histories of what is generally called McCarthyism, yet anti-communist repression was in many ways more intense there than in the mainland US. Now, with Puerto Rico's future currently hanging in the balance, Howell's compelling history demonstrates why we need to understand the long enforcement of its colonial status.
Reviews / Votes
"Steve Howell's book stresses the geopolitical dimensions of Puerto Rico's colonial history and focuses on the overlooked subject of how the preservation of colonial domination shaped the Cold War persecution of communists in Puerto Rico. It offers an extraordinary combination of detailed scholarly work in deciphering FBI files and other contemporaneous documents with insights into the role of friendship in political life as the men and women portrayed suffered the traumas of persecution, incarceration or exile."-Arcadio Diaz-Quinones, former director of the Program in Latin American Studies, Princeton"Howell does an excellent job uncovering the FBI's transnational networks that enabled it to harass Puerto Rican radicals, follow their compatriots abroad, and work with other intelligence and legislative agencies to circumscribe individual freedoms and rights ostensibly in the name of national security and democracy."-Denise M. Lynn, author of Women March for Peace: Black Radical Women's Anti-Korean War Activism
"Most histories of McCarthyism ignore Puerto Rico. Most histories of the Puerto Rico independence movement focus on the Nationalist current. Steve Howell's book makes a major contribution to filling these gaps. His investigation unearths new material and brings to memory significant events, such as the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings in Puerto Rico in 1959, a spectacular confrontation that until now has not received the attention it merits in the literature on McCarthyism or in Puerto Rican historiography."-Rafael Bernabe, author of Obstinate Star: a History of the Puerto Rico Independence Movement
"Steve Howell's deeply researched and expertly written account of red scare politics in Puerto Rico offers an impressively panoramic yet surprisingly intimate portrayal of mid-twentieth-century U.S. colonialism and anti-communism at a crucial intersection point in the American empire."-Dr. Hugh Wilford, author of The CIA: An Imperial History
"Howell narrates the history of solidarity between a network of Puerto Rican and U.S. communists who faced repression from the developing US imperialist state during the early years of the Cold War. An engaging and important historical contribution."-Sandy Placido, Associate Professor, Rutgers-Newark
"Cold War Puerto Rico is both the story of radicals such as Brandon Howell, the author's father, who tried to make Puerto Rico into a modernist paradise and to accompany it in its journey to independence, and it is a story of Puerto Rico, and its own radicals, amongst whom Howell became an important figure. This is a little-known story of the fight for an island to breathe."-Vijay Prashad, Director, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, and author of numerous books, including with Noam Chomsky: The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya Afghanistan and the Fragility of US Power
"What Steve Howell's done here is shine a light on a story that's far too often brushed aside. Puerto Rico's struggle isn't just some footnote to Cold War history; it's about real people whose lives were torn apart for daring to stand up against colonial rule. The way he pulls together FBI files, personal histories, and the bigger political picture makes this more than just a history lesson. It's a reminder of how power works, how dissent gets crushed, and why solidarity across borders really matters. Anyone who cares about justice and democracy should read this book."-Maryam Eslamdoust, General Secretary, TSSA Union
"Cold War Puerto Rico offers a new perspective on political persecution in the island during the 1950s. Blending personal history, the global Cold War, and anti-communist policies, Steve Howell tells this story from the perspective of those who were targeted. Through this work, Howell sheds light on a forgotten chapter in the history of Puerto Rican independence and exposes the systematic violations of civil rights committed in the name of national security."-Emmanuel Figueroa Rosado, author of Borinquen Rojo
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Massachusetts
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
12 illus.
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
406 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-62534-948-4 (9781625349484)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Steve Howell is an Anglo-American journalist, author, and former communications consultant. He has appeared as a political commentator on the BBC, ITV, Sky News, and various podcasts, and has contributed opinion pieces to publications such as The Nation, Big Issue, and The Guardian. His books include Game Changer: Eight Weeks That Transformed British Politics, which was a Guardian best book of the year.
Content
List of Illustrations
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Washington's Stormy "Stronghold"
2. Diego's Dangerous Drawings
3. The Making of a Red Scare
4. A Movement Divided and "Gagged"
5. Getting the Heck Out of Dodge
6. Bee, Baumgardner, and the Dodgy Doctor
7. The Not-So-Free Association
8. Friends in the Firing Line
9. Enforcing the New Monroe Doctrine
10. Plan B: Enter the Smith Act
11. No Hiding from Hoover
12. HUAC Humiliated in San Juan
13. From Contempt to COINTELPRO
Conclusion. Cold War and Colonialism: Counting the Costs
The Story Behind the Book
Notes
Index
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Washington's Stormy "Stronghold"
2. Diego's Dangerous Drawings
3. The Making of a Red Scare
4. A Movement Divided and "Gagged"
5. Getting the Heck Out of Dodge
6. Bee, Baumgardner, and the Dodgy Doctor
7. The Not-So-Free Association
8. Friends in the Firing Line
9. Enforcing the New Monroe Doctrine
10. Plan B: Enter the Smith Act
11. No Hiding from Hoover
12. HUAC Humiliated in San Juan
13. From Contempt to COINTELPRO
Conclusion. Cold War and Colonialism: Counting the Costs
The Story Behind the Book
Notes
Index