A VISIT WITH FIDEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201040010-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: June 7, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201040010-5
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WALL STREET JOURNAL
7 June 1985
'A Visit With Fidel
By ARTHUR SCHLESINGER JR.
HAVANA-He is older now-he will be
:58 in August-and his black hair and beard
are tinged with gray. I would guess that he
has put on weight. He has been persuaded
to give up the long thick Havana cigars
that were once his trademark. Now he re-
sorts to slim panetelas. and these spar-
ingly. He thinks Cubans smoke too much
;and is reluctantly trying to set his coun-
trymen a good example. "In this cause,"
he says, "I am even prepared to throw
away my cigars. That will be my last con-
tribution to the revolution."His vitality appears as boundless as
ever, and he remains the great survivor.
With the death of Enver Hoxha of Albania,
only Kim 11 Sung of North Korea, King
Hussein of Jordan and Alfredo Stroessner
of Paraguay have been in power longer.
Despite the CIA and seven U.S. presidents
l an w at a now regards as the im laca-
b e.enmi 0 the present a inistration in
iWashin on, Fi el tro seems totally
confident about the future o. is regime
and 0 his revolution.
I saw him at the end of May. I had gone
earlier in the day with three other North
Americans to the Bay of Pigs, and we met,
in a slightly augmented group, with Mr.
Castro that evening. Life has its ironies: It
was the day onwhich John Kennedy would
have been 68. f
The Full Tre true t
Mr. Castro had spent a long day on the
'Isle of Pines with Javier Perez de Cuellar,
!which is communist, seem more alike than
two communist countries, one of which is
'Lath American.
One feels rather that nationalism-a
passionate, romantic, anti-yanqui, macho
Latin nationalism-is the mainspring of
Mr. Castro's politics. North Americans, es-
pecially in the age of Reagan, should be
.able to understand this ardent and prickly
national pride, even as we object when it is
displayed by nationals of another country.
Mr. Castro's hair-trigger nationalist sensi-
tivity accounts, I believe, for the indigna-
tion be shows over Radio Marti, as it ac-
counted for his indignation over the Soviet
decision to withdraw its nuclearrnissiles in
1962 without consulting him.
Radio Marti- began its broadcasts on
May 20,uba's traditional independence
day. Everywhere we went that week in Ha-
vana we encountered local wrath. It isifot,
(Cuban officials insist, that they are' con-
eerned about Radio Marti's programs'. The
people who. operate Radio Marti;'; they
claim, know only "yesterday's Cuba" and
1 have nothing to say to Cubans today. Radio
11brtt~_us-_ the same frequency as the
Voice_ of America and has, in the Cuban
hIew, far Iesa.credilai1 y. The Cubans dis-
iclaim any intention of jamming Radio
(Marti and indeed give it abundant public-
lity in their press.
The Cubans are mad because they re-
gard Radio Marti as an insult to their na-
tional dignity. They, especially resent the.
cynical exploitation of the revered national
y
the secretarygeneral of the United Na , not read a line he has written. (According
tions. But he was full of energy and talk to the useful Washington publication Times
when he entered the conference room at ? of the Americas, the first White House
p the full For the next four hours he gave us release announced the intention of
the full treatment-an endless, ess, often bril- establishing a "Radio Joe Marti.") Jose
liant, flow of argument, analysis, admoni- Marti, who lived for many years in Brook-
Lion, accusation, enlivened by Jokes, Para- lyn, had great affection for the U.S. But be
files, metaphors, statistics, historical di- TAW&JW4104*90* few u of the irr and of
gressions, all punctuated by flourished of North American power on Latin America.-
Ihis (unlit) cigar and by a splendid roper- .`Once the United States is in Cuba," he
toire of facial expressions. Whatever else asked in 1889, "who will drive them out?"
may said of Fidel Castro, he is a great "The farther they draw away from the
perftmw.
He is definitely proud of his Soviet eon- Unhet-Stabs," he wrote in 1896 "ths freer
nection and of his commitment to revolu- and more prosperous the American people
tionary internationalism. He is deeply 4111 be."
grateful for Soviet aid, now running at Mr. Castro is angry, too, because Radio
about $4 billion a year. He uses the Com- (Marti has ended a hope he briefly cher-
munist Party to organize his country and tished that Mr. Reagan in his second term
communist ideology to organize his pole- might do for communist Cuba what Rich-
mics. Yet his Cuba lacks the grimness, and ard Nixon had done for communist China.
melancholy that pervade the communist Mr. Castro would admittedly tike to nor,
satellites of Eastern Europe. His table talk with Washington, though
is, on the whole devoid of Marxist Cliches. never, he emphasizes, at the expense of
`Perhaps communism is different in a hot !Cuba's collectivist economy or of its basic
iclimate. I was reminded of the French relationship with the Soviet Union. He had
iaphorism: "Two deputies, one of whom is been encouraged by the progress in bilat-
a communist, are more alike than two eral negotiations that culminated in the
communists, one of whom is a deputy ." .migration agreement of last December.
ITwo Latin American countries,-one., of Possibilities existed for further improve
hero by politicians who had never pre-
heard of Jose Marti and still have
viousl
ment," Mr. Castro tells us. "The negotia-
tions over the migratory persons agree-
ment had shown flexibility and mutual re-
spect." Cuba thereafter sent out signals in-
dicating its desire for more discussions.
Then Radio Marti came like a harsh
back of the hand from the U.S. "Why was
this done?" Mr. Castro asks, pulling a
rumpled copy of the official U.S. notifica-
tion out of an inner pocket and waving it at
us. "Why do they want to create a conflict
now?" The explanation that Radio Marti
had long been in the bureaucratic pipeline
and that in any can it could be better ua
derstood as part of dramatic politics than
of foreign policy does not satisfy him. We
ask Mr. Castro how he now views the fu-
ture of the relationship. "Prospects for im-
provement are nonexistent," he says
flatly.
1Qot:ifnd andtng how the U.S. govern
ment workss .'Castro assumes that 13a-.
dio Marti fa-ageement in a coherent plan,
perhaps leading - on to a new attempt to
overthrow his regime. Cuban officials take
every opportunity to stress their state of
military preparedness. Weapons are stock-
piled', across the country. Citizens are
'trained to usethea. "We have really be-
come." Mr. Castro recently told a team
from the Washington Post, "an invulnera-
ble, unconquerable and unoccupiable coun-
try:" This wide distribution of weapons
does indicate the regime's confidence in
the loyalty of the Cuban people. An unpop-
ular dictatorship would not dare run such
risks.
The Reagan administration, Mr. Castro
concludes, interprets every Cuban gesture
of good will as proof of Cuban weakness.
When Cubans express interest in better re-
lations, Washington says that the Russians
must'e preparing to dump them or that
the economy must be in bad trouble. Lest a
soft response to Radio Marti be taken as
f proof of wesim a. Mr. Castro
struck back by suspending the immigra-
tion agreement. Machismo demanded a
bold vindication of national dignity. The
Cubans are determined, in the words of
their own commweique,,.to dispel all doubts
' ,as to our resisting as long as is neces-
sary." "The Reagan administration is ab-
solutely wrong," Mr. Castro tells us, "if it
bases itself on the idea that we are
afraid."
He reaffirmed his.readiness to pull the
Cuban military presence out of Central
America under third party vertfieathm if
the U.S. would do the same and repeated
his warnings against U.S. military inter-
vention. "The reaction to Reagan's em-
bargo of Nicaragua proves that Latin
America today is not what it was in 1961"
when Cuba was excluded from the Organi-
-zation of American States.
. "The Reagan administration," Mr. Cas-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201040010-5