OPERATION AMERICA

When the subject is the ""atheistic, enslaving global Communist conspiracy"" in general and Cuba's part in that conspiracy in particular, and when the author is Chicago Tribune correspondent who wrote a book about Castro in ""the heat of the uphoria"" that surrounded the downfall of Bastista, and who further discloses in his Preface that ""the Communists tried to lynch me in October, 1959""--well, one does not expect an objective study. One's expectations, or the lack of them, are in no way disappointed here, but this is a fascinating book for all its journalistic rhetoric. Mr. Dubois makes no secret of his political coloring, and he pays scant attention to such seemingly pertinent matters as, for instance, the United States' long history of grievous diplomatic errors in Latin America, or Latin America's real and very dangerous social injustices; but he does not paint an entirely black-and-white picture, for all that. The value of the work lies in his intimate acquaintance with the fantastically complicated web of conspiracy--and counter-conspiracy--which emanates from Havana, Peking, Moscow--and Miami and Washington--and spreads its sticky skeins over every capitol south of our borders. He names the names, the places, the specific intrigues; and he tells a good story excitingly. When at the end he calls on President Kennedy to ""exercise the leadership....to abolish the key Soviet base in Communist Cuba,"" one wakes with a startled awareness that this is not merely another cloak-and-dagger thriller.