EDUCATION
He received his university education at La Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City from which he holds a B.A. and an M.A. (summa cum laude), at Columbia University in New York City, from which he holds another M.A., and at George Washington University in Washington D.C., where he received a third M.A. and a Ph.D. In 1990, Dr. Smith received the Henry L. Cain Most Distinguished Alumnus award from La Universidad de las Americas.

FOREIGN SERVICE CAREER
During his 25 years with the Department of State, which he joined in 1957, Dr. Smith saw service in the Soviet Union, Argentina, as well as in Cuba. He served as the Executive Secretary of President Kennedy's Latin American Task Force and in 1961 was cited by the Task Force Chairman, Mr. A.A. Berle, as one of the outstanding young Foreign Service Officers in the Latin American Bureau. In 1973, he received the Meritorious Honor Award for the sustained excellence of his political reporting from Buenos Aires. When he decided to leave the Foreign Service in 1982 because of fundamental disagreements with the Reagan Administration's foreign policy, he was Chief of Mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, and was recognized as the Department of State's leading expert on Cuba.

CURRENT AND RECENT POSITIONS
Now Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Smith directs that institution's academic exchange program with the University of Havana.

Since 1992, he has also been a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington D.C., From 1982 until 1984, he was a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also in Washington, D.C.

PUBLICATIONS
Dr. Smith's most recent book is The Russians Aren't Coming: New Soviet Policy in Latin America (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), of which he is the editor. His other works include Portrait of Cuba (Turner Publishing, 1991); Toward Resolution: The Falklands/Malvinas Dispute (Lynne Rienner, 1991), again as an editor; and The Closest of Enemies: A Personal and Diplomatic Account of the Castro Years (W.W. Norton of New York City, 1987). He was also the co-editor, along with Esteban Morales, of Subject to Solution: Problems in Cuban-U.S. Relations (Lynne Rienner, 1988), which won the Critic award in 1989 as one of the best academic books reviewed that year.

In addition, Dr. Smith frequently publishes articles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Christian Science Monitor, The Miami Herald, and Foreign Policy. His article in the Summer 1987 edition of Foreign Policy, entitiled "Lies about Nicaragua," was cited by several congressmen as a key document in the debate over aid to the contras.

ASSOCIATIONS
Dr. Smith is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, of the Latin American Studies Association and of the Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.