Louis A. Perez examines the founding of the national army in Cuba, the rise and fall of Cuban army preeminence during the Machado regime, the bizarre army seizure of power in 1933, which resulted in the collapse of the officer corps, and follows the dominance of the army until the revolution of 1958. He shows that the Cuban political order rested on the stability of the army, which itself grew increasingly estranged from national traditions and eventually became the tool of a clique of political leaders, only to fall to rebel forces during the revolution.

This book is the first examination of the Cuban military in the context of Cuba's political and economic challenges in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR - and therefore of Soviet economic, political and psychological support. It provides important historical and political contexts of the development and engagement of the military.