Evening star., 1960-10-09
Fooled by Castro

49,, Senator Kennedy's Cincinnati
speech on the Cuban situation implies
that II he had been President during
the past four years CommuniSt-in-
cNned F1del Castro would not be ruling
the rooSt in Havana today. Unfortu-
nately, the Democratic candidate did
not say precisely how he would have
prevented this unhappy development
Senator Kennedy did not hesitate,
however, to impute some responsibility
to Mr.. Nixon. The Vice President. he
said, was in Cuba five years ago, but
could not see then what should have
been obvious" And, even worse, Mr..
Nixon, according to Senator Kennedy,
still could not see the obvious when he
made his Latin American trip in 1853
that unless the Cuban people, with our
help, made substantial economic pro-
gress trouble was inevitably on its way"
Well, perhaps Mr.. Nixon was fooled
In 1855 and 1858. Perhaps he should
have done better. But what about Sem
ator kennedy? How clearly did he, as a
member OF the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee, foresee the shape of
things to come?
His implication that, in 1853, "trou-
BILE" might have been averted by sub
stantial American economic aid is, we
think, unworthy of presidential can
didate. For in 1858 trouble, in the per-
son OF Fidel Castro, was already ham
merlng on the gatewayS to Havana. Did
Senator Kennedy ever foreSee what was
to come? Did he realize that Castro
would enSlave Cuba in what the Massa-
chuSettS Senator now calls "the iron
grip of Communists -oriented dictator
ship?
We do not think so. And in support
OF this belief we offer the following ex-
cerpt from Senator KennedyS book, The
Strategy OF Peace, published not in 1855
or 1858 but in 1860:
Fidel Castro is part of the legacy of
(Slmon Bolivar (the great Latin American
laboratory who led his men over the Andes
Mountains, vowing war to the death" against
Spanish rule, saying. Where goat can pass,
SO can an army" Castro is also part of the
1rpstration Of that earlier revolution which
won its war against Spain but left largely
untouched the indigenous feudal order ITO
serve revolution is to plow the sea-" Bolivar
SAID In despair as he lived to see the failure
OF his efforts at social reform
.a 2, whether Castro would have taken a more
rational course after his victory had the
United States Government not backed the
dictator Batista so long and so uncritically.
and had it given the fiery young rebel a
warmer welcome in his hour of triumph, espe-
clally on his trip to this country, we cannot
be sure.
NO one, OF course, can be sure of
anything. But we think that this esti-
mate of the fiery young REBEL" an esti-
mate published this year, hardly quail
1fies Senator Kennedy to condemn Mr..
Nixon for failing in 1855 or 1858 to see
what should have been obvious. And
while on this point what was it, really,
that was obvious before Castro came to
power?
90 To u.s. at least, it is far from obvious
that warmer welcome to Castro would
nave diverted him from his Communist
course, or that greater American eco
nomic aid to the Cubans would have
prevented the Castro dictatorship. On
these points, we think, Senator Kennedy
has, or had, his head in the clouds
'' What was obvious in 1858 was that a
choice had to be made between trying
to uphold BatiSta or accepting the risk
that Castro would come to power. We
chose the latter course. AS Earl Smith,
our former Ambassador to Cuba, has put
IT: I'VE helped to overthrow the Batista
dictatorship which was pro-American
only to install the Castro dictatorship
which is pro-RuSSian."
-. This is true, and we are going to
spend long time regretting it. Still, all
may not be lost. For Senator Kennedy
has promised to spell out later in the
campaign the details of his program for
Latin America, presumably including
Cuba. We will await it with interest, but
without much hope.