Despite an exhaustive and successful implementation of the economic embargo against Cuba, the United States has failed to achieve its stated policy goals, the most significant arguably being the ouster of Fidel Castro. The author argues that three main factors caused the the ability of Cuba to circumvent the embargo by turning to the Soviet Union; the ability of Castro to develop countermeasures, most importantly by using the sanctions policy to rally national support; and the fact that the policy goals were too difficult to achieve through an embargo. She successively looks at five distinct periods of the embargo and examines the evolving domestic economic situation in Cuba for each period. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.