Evening star., 1960-10-31
Reasonable Facsimile

SremIeF tlQeI CaSCr0 COnClnueS 10
rant and rave to his countrymen about
the imminence of an invasion" to be
carried out by "mercenarieS being
armed and trained by the United States
in Guatemala and Florida" In addition,
intenSifying his hate-WaShington propa-
ganda, he and his controlled press, radio
and televiSion have sought to stir up
national hysteria by Stridently charging
that Cuba may be attacked at any
moment by our Marines, several hundred
Of whom have just pointedly spent few
days Of "reSt and recreation" down there
at our Guantanamo naval base.
Interestingly enough, however, while
he thus has been attempting to frighten
the Cuban people and befuddle them
with poisonous libelS against our coun-
try, the bearded young dictator has
noiSily boaSted that he and his Commu-
niSt-oriented regime are equipped to
smash any invading force AS he has put
it, I'VE have the morale, the technique
and the enthusiasm, and we have the
arms" Accordingly, IF our enemies at
tack us soon, it will be bad for them. And
if they wait, 1t will be worse" In short,
come what may, Fidel Castro, as he
keeps on indicating in his interminable
TV speeches Zone of the worlds most
striking examples Of logorrhea), regards
himself as invincible, and he appears to
have kind of messianic confidence that
his So-called revolution" "a queer ider-
logical bouillabaiSSe whose chief ingredi-
ent is chunk of old-fashioned bolshe-
vism) will eventually triumph every
where in the Western Hemisphere.
On its face, all this may look like
case Of megalomania mixed up with
some touches of a persecution complex.
But Fidel Castro, even though his gen.
eral behavior Is eccentric enough to be
pSychiatrically very interesting, displays
a certain operational method that is too
systematic and too sinister to be equated
with mere madness. For he has been
following line deliberately designed to
Shatter the cooperation and friendship
that have long existed between his coun-
try and ours; more than that, he has
given every evidence of being intent
upon exporting his revolution" to the
whole Of Latin America, with a view to
turning it against the United States in
way that would facilitate the efforts of
international communism to move in
on the Western Hemisphere and take it
over. To that extent at least, the Havana
dictator, far from being a mere buffoon
with a weak mind, must be regarded as
a purposeful young man who is under
Standably most pleasing to the Kremlin
1t may be, of course, that Fidel
Castro Is not actually a full-fiedged
Soviet agent or puppet, but he has long
since become reasonable facsimile
thereof. That is why the Organization of
American States would do well to act
aflrmatively on our Governments re-
quest for an investigation of the large
shipments Of arms and technicians that
he has been receiving from the Com
munist bloc. It would do well, too, to look
into the growing danger that his "revo-
lutionary" regime may be using scare
talk about an invasion to cover up its
own plans to strike at neighboring coun-
tries like Guatemala. In any event, If
there Is anything clear about what he is
up to, it is simply this: That he is not
working for peace in the Western Hemi-
sphere, but seems instead to be playing
role consciously contrived to advance
the cause of Red totalitarianism.