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ordering. Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History magazine,

Britain's best selling history magazine.

I'm Ellie Corthorn. In September 1960, Fidel Castro arrived in New York for the opening of the

UN General Assembly. Simon Hall tells the story of this momentous visit. In his new book,

10 Days in Harlem, Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s. And that's the subject of today's

conversation. Putting the questions to Simon was our Deputy Editor, Matt Elton.

Your new book is called 10 Days in Harlem and charts an extraordinary 10 day period in 1960.

Can you just talk very succinctly to start with, I suppose, through what happened and why it had

such a huge impact? Yeah, so the book is set around Fidel Castro's visit to New York in September

of 1960. And he's going to New York for the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The 15th General Assembly, which is a kind of huge kind of diplomatic set piece of the early post

war period mid 20th century. And everybody is going to the UN General Assembly that year. So

Eisenhower is speaking, Harold Wattman is speaking, Nikita Christchurch is going,

Nairu is going, NASA is going. And it's taking place at a huge moment in the

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