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L ATIN AMERICA stands today at a watershed in its history, comparable to the year in which it began its anticolonial struggle, or to the revolutionary years 1889 to 1891, or to that annus terribilis, 1930. The degree of tension throughout Latin America, to use a recent observation in the New Statesman, suggests that the "time is coming when its peoples will step onto the world stage in their own right, and play the massive part to which their economic wealth entitles them." Despite the long period in which the area has enjoyed political independence, tension is everywhere and its forms are many. In Mexico it is evident in the heated discussion over what constitutes "judicious Leftism"; in Colombia it is the fragile nationalized stalemate of the National Front; in Venezuela it is seen in the snail's pace of reform and the creeping insolvency of an oil-rich country; since Peron 's overthrow it is etched in the widespread pessimism and cynicism of Argentina; and, it has reached a peak in the Cubans' decision to cast off from the past and embark upon uncharted seas. The novelty of the Cuban case derives not as much from the elements that have made it explosive as from the combination of all the elements found scattered throughout Latin America. It has long been assumed that the major problems of Latin America would be solved somehow by evolutionary methods; but Cuba's instability suggests that this assumption is erroneous. The historian's task is not to perpetuate error but to enlighten, and it is clear that what brought Cuba to its present situation, mal-distribution and under-utilization of land and other natural resources, economic nationalism, the inadequacy of parliamentary government to solve effectively and demonstrably the