2. VICTOR LASKY SENT ME THE ATTACHED COPY OF A CUBAN PROPAGANDA PUBLICATION, "FAIR PLAY," PUBLISHED BY THE FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA COMMITTEE, 799 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06062825
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: July 1, 2024
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2024
• Case Number: F-2020-01361
• Publication Date: December 9, 1960

C9m , F: "Pal r P1a For Cuba Cait1-"
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X: ZIA
X: Lasky, Via6r)ec G 0
9 December 1960
MEMORANDUM FOR THE DIRECTOR
1. This memorandum is for information only.
2. Victor Lasky sent me the attached copy of a Cuban propaganda publi-
cation, "Fair Play," published by the Fair Play for Cap. Committee, 799 Broad-
way, New York 3, New York. Robert Taber is Editor.
3. There are references to the Director on Page 2 and to the Deputy
Director on Page 3. This publication is conducting a ten-day airplane all-
expense tour to Cuba, applications closing tomorrow, 10 December 1960. The
total expense is, including plane fare each way, from Miami $1001 and from
New York $220. This organization has organized Fair Play and Student Council
chapters across the country, claiming 40 of the latter to date. They have
arranged, as they state, student demonstrations at the United Ahtions head-
quarters with the slogans "Hands Off Cuba" and "Send Federal Troops To Louisiana,
Not Cuba."
4, Carleton Beals, William Worthy (of Afro-American), Izzy Stone (of
Washington), and Professor C. Wright Mills are Obviously active workers with
this organization.
5. I plan to forward this publication to WH after the DCI has seen it.
Attach.
cc: DDCI wio attach.
OE.0, 19 [10..
(b)(3)
-'STANLEY J. GROGANV
Assikant to .the Director
(.-
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Only Eight More Days
To Join Xmas-in-Cuba Tour!
(See Page 4)
Fair Play
Vol. 2 No. 7 December 2, 1960
0006 264 New York
15 cents
Polishing Up the Big Stick:
Another Step Toward U. S.
As a nation, we suddenly found ourselves committed
last month to a military adventure of appalling reck-
lessness in Central America�skirting what C. Wright
Mills of Columbia University calls, in all seriousness, '
"the perils of disastrous mistakes." (See Page 3)
Taking time out from the inevitable golf at Augusta,
Ga., President Eisenhower ordered an aircraft carrier
and a destroyer squadron to Central American waters,
with instructions to halt�if need be to sink�any craft
carrying men or materials of war to Guatemala or
Nicaragua.
The pretext: a flare-up of popular insurrection in
those banana and coffee republics, and with it the
entirely imaginary threat of a "Communist" invasion
from revolutionary Cuba�or elsewhere.
(The President merely said "abroad." White House
Secretary clarified: "Abroad could mean Cuba or any
other place abroad.")
The real object of the show of strength appeared to
be (1) to intimidate the Guatemalan and Nicaraguan
insurrectos and any other restless Latin Americans,
while propping up those pillars of U.S.-style democracy,
Guatemala's General Ydigoras and the Somoza brothers;
(2) further to pave the way toward overt military
intervention in Cuba itself, with or without the sanction
of the Organization of American States.
The logic involved is apparently to the effect that
if Cuba can be branded as an aggressor in Latin
America, no one will shed any tears on her behalf when
the Marines storm ashore�or a UN "police" force, as
the case may be.
What Latin America Thinks
Latin-American reaction, even in the most conserva-
tive quarters, was about what Eisenhower 8s Company
should have expected it to be, assuming that they were
at all in touch with sentiment south of the border. But
this may, of course, be too generous an assumption.
Newspapers like Bogota's sober El Tiempo found
themselves "profoundly disturbed." Diario Carioca in
Brazil put its editorial finger on the cause of concern:
"The big danger. ... is that we shall confirm the gravest
precedent: that it will be enough for any Latin-Ameri-
tervention tn
What's Cooking?
Puerto Barrios, last stronghold of the Guate-
malan rebels, surrendered on Wednesday, Nov.
16, and the same day Nicaragua announced
that its revolt was crushed. Why, then, the
flamboyant announcement from Augusta the
following day? The election is over. So is the
revolt. Why, then, the marshalling of a 33,000
ton aircraft carrier and four destroyers, a huge
armada against the mosquito boat fleets avail-
able in the Caribbean? Is this really a tryout
for the more dangerous game of throwing a
barricade around Cuba? Hanson Baldwin in
The New York Times last Sunday (Nov. 2
said it could be a precedent for such action.***
There is also some ground to fear that the
CIA may be preparing an invasion of Cuba.
The Natiortaloy. 19) said Dr. Ronald Hilton,
direc or of the Instiute of Hispanic-American
Affairs at Stanford, was told onwawr-ecent visit
to Guatemala that the acquired a
$1,000,000 trgatflarieTrAie seacoast that
was being used-fetrain Cuban Counter-revoluA
tionaries for anyasip rpin Guatemala City
(a New York Times correspondent Nov. 20
by his army for guerrilla warfare training and
that the project was not U.S. subsidized. But
port and insisting that the land was being used
when opposition deputies asked for an investi.
Guatemalan newspaper, it was refused on the
cooking up in the Caribbean?�I. F. Stone's
Weekly, Nov. 28.
quoted President Ydigoras as denying this re-
gation after these reports were published in the
grounds of military secrecy. Just what are we
can government to term as Communist any movement
forming against it, to count on prompt, decisive North
American intervention even without the opinion of the
OAS."
The Uruguayan Marche underlined a fact which few
(Continued on Page 2)
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FAIR PLAY, December 2, 1960
U.S. Warships in the Caribbean: AnotherStep Toward Intervention
(Continued from Page 1)
if any U.S. newspapers had the grace to admit: "Gen-
eral Eisenhower has ordered the Navy and Air Force
to seek out and impede any Communist attack on
Guatemala and Nicaragua.*** General Ydigoras Fuen-
tes and the Somoza brothers can rest easy. The Marines
are protecting their sleep.*** But in this episode neither
the United States Government nor its friendly regimes
have been able to produce a single concrete proof of
Castro intromission to justify the patrol."
By and large, the U.S. public seemed to view the
proceedings unperturbed. The only public protest heard
was in New York, where six hundred Fair Play pickets
staged a two-hour "Hands Off Cuba" demonstration at
the United Nations. (Nov. 26.)
Just Call Us 'Muscles'
With honorable exceptions, the press was true to
form, somehow managing to suggest, in tones of sleepy
self-satisfaction, that callousness to the interests of other
peoples was a form of forebearance and that they
ought to be grateful for our big brotherliness. To quote
from Newsweek:
"�the U.S. had evidently decided that the time had
come to flex the Navy's muscles in public; peaceably
and within the niceties of diplomatic protocol(!)�but
still another reminder that Central America's Good
Neighbor to the north was also a neighbor of towering
strength."
Still a big, bullying boob, that is.
Nowhere in the commentary of the mass media or
the utterances of our leaders has the obvious question
been raised: what happens if the ship that gets sunk
while we're flexing our muscles turns out to have been
a Soviet merchantman?
We hope that President-Elect Kennedy is thinking
about that�but already there is much to discourage
such a hope, including his confirmation of CIA chief
Allan Dulles, the architect of our present disastrous
Cuban policy
What You Can Do
If Kennedy, as president, does veer from the aggres-
sive course charted by Kennedy the presidential can-
didate, it will only be in response to a clamorous public
opinion that does not, at the moment, exist.
Fair Play has its work cut out for it. We have made
a start, with chapters now established in most of the
principal cities, and branches of the new Student Coun-
cil on more than forty college campuses. But organiza-
tional reports, pamphlets, and good intentions won't
do the job, nor will an occasional demonstration. What
is needed is thousands of letters to the White House, to
the newspapers, to Congress; and public protest meet-
ings from coast to coast that will serve notice that the
American people do not support Washington's present
Latin American policy.
To accomplish this�to help prevent an "incident"
Monroe Lived Long Ago
"For what does the national freedom of a
sovereign state mean if it does not mean that
it has control in its own territory, over its own
resources, over its own military force?***
"President Monroe was your President about
137 years ago. That is a long time; what he said
is not exactly eternal. He was not a Cuban,
anyway, nor a Brazilian, a Mexican, a Chilean.
He was a Yankee. And this Monroe Doctrine
with all the things that have been added to it
and the interpretations made of it, these are not
doctrines built on any consultation with any
of the governments of any of the peoples of
Latin America. It has been a Yankee policy,
enforced militarily by the United States Ma-
rines, used economically by the United States
corporations, and used politically by the United
States Government�to interfere in the internal
and international affairs of Latin American
countries."�from Listen, Yankee, by C. Wright
Mills.
"It is only when popular revolt breaks out
that the U.S. takes a hand, and then only to
spread alarm about the dangers of Communism
and now of that new bugaboo, Castroism. * * *
Is it any wonder that Castro is a hero in Latin
America, and that we appear to be the main
obstacle to aspirations for a more decent life
below the border? Yankee imperialism, to our
shame, is not just a propaganda slogan in Cen-
tral America. It is a reality. To recognize this,
and to stop blinding ourselves with nonsense
about Cuban plots, is the first essential to wiser
politics and better relations.�/. F. Stone's
Weekly, Nov. 19.
that could start a global war�the Fair Play for Cuba
Committee and the Student Council urgently need
funds. That means contributions and memberships.
If you have not yet joined the Committee, send in
your membership application and dues today. If you
are already a member, pass this along to someone who
hasn't heard about Fair Play. Help us to build an or-
ganization that can stop that muscle-flexing in the
Caribbean and avert the military miscalculation that
could mean curtains for us all.
SIGN UP TODAf! SUPPORT FAIR PLAY FOR
CUBA!
GOING TO CUBA FOR CHRISTMAS?
If you are, better hurry! The closing date for appli-
cations for Fair Play's Christmqs tour to Cuba is De-
cember 10. If you plan to go, now is the time to send
in your check and reservation. Details on Page 4.
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FAIR PLAY, December 2, 1960
3
Listen, Yankee: Cuba Could be
Last August the editor of Fair Play had the pleasure
and privilege of accompanying -Columbia University
sociologist C. Wright Milfs�(The Power Elite; White
Collar) On a tour of Cuba, and watching him in action
as he intensively interviewed the revolutionary lead-
ers, from Fidel Castro on down.
The end product of Mills' exhaustive survey (he is
nothing if not thorough; in preparing material for
White Collar, he went so far as to post stenographers
in ladies' rooms to catch the off-guard chat of office
girls) is a boldly controversial new book, Listen,
Yankee.
Mills' opinion�and he says so in the most em-
phatic manner possible�that we had better listen:
"No matter what you may think of it, no matter
what I think of it�Cuba's voice is a voice that must
be heard in the United States of America. Yet it has
not been heard. It must now be heard because the
United States is too powerful, its responsibilities to
the world and to itself are too great, for its people
not to be able to listen to every voice of the hungry
world.
"If we do not listen to them, if we do not hear
them well, we face all the perils of ignorance�and
with these, the perils of disastrous mistakes. * * *
Some of the mistakes of ignorance have already been
made, in our name, by the United States Govern-
ment�and with disastrous consequences everywhere
in the world for the image and future of the United
States. But perhaps it is not too late for us to listen
�and to act."
Mills makes no pretense of being "objective" in the
journalistic sense. He says frankly that his purpose is
to present, "as clearly and as emphatically as I can,"
the voice of the Cuban revolutionary, the Cuban side
_
of the story, which the U.S. press has so lamentably
failed to present. _ .
_
This view is projected in a series of imaginary let-
ters from a sort of composite Cuban. The style is at
times disconcerting: 'We Cubans know that you believe
we are all led by a bunch of Communists, that the Rus-
sians are soon going to set up a rocket base, or some-
thing like that, here in Cuba, aimed at you; that we
have killed thousands of people, out of hand, and are
still doing it; that we have no democracy or freedom;
and that we have no respect for private property. What
you believe about us, after all, is your own business; we
don't really care."
But the content is solid and full of surprises; and
the message comes across, powerfully:
"Today the revolution is going on in Cuba. Tomor-
row�not next year�it is going to be going on else-
where. A revolution like ours does not come about
just because anyone wants it.. . . We don't take satis-
Our Last Chance
Mills on Cuba and Communism
"The first thing you must realize is that this
Communist Party of Cuba has never been very
large or very strong as a party. Your CIA
deputy (Gen. C. P. Cabell, deputy director,
CIA), at the end of 1959, estimated 17,000
Communist Party members in Cuba. Maybe so.
It sounds about right.
-
The seco* rid' thing that's important is that
this party did not play any part at all in the
making of our revolution. The revolution, as
we've told you, was made in the Sierra Maestra;
and it is there that we really won out over the
tyranny. For over five years, in fact�before we
won�the Communists, when they didn't ignore
us, were political rivals of our movement. We
owed them nothing when we triumphed over
Batista's tyranny. They didn't help. And any
part Communists now have in our revolution-
ary Government is because our Government
gave them that part. They are there because
they are now, like almost everyone else, help-
ing our revolution. They didn't make any revo-
lution.
"The plain fact is, our revolution has outdone
the Communists on every score. . . . In fact,
this is the case generally with local Commu-
nist parties in Latin America. In a real revolu-
tion today, in Latin America, at least, the local
Communists are to the right of the revolution.
. . . They always arrive too late and with too
little. This has been the case in Cuba and it still
is the case: they lag behind our revolution."�
Listen, Yankee, by C. Wright Mills, McGraw
Hill and Ballantine Books, 1960. (Obtainable
in paperback through Fair Play, 799 Broad-
way, New York 3, N. Y.; 500.)
faction in the fact that we are the center of the cold
war in the Caribbean. We don't like the cold war
anywhere�who does? But we are glad, we have to be
glad, that finally many things that must be done are
now being done in Cuba.
"So what can we say to you to make you understand?
"Can we say: Become aware of our agonies and our
aspirations? If you do it will help you to know what
is happening in the world you are living in. Take Cuba
as the case; in terms of it, re-think who you are,
American.
"What does Cuba mean?
"It means another chance for you."
Recommended reading.
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�
FAIR PLAY, December 2, 1960
F-P Pickets March in 'Hands Off Cuba' Protest
Although Fair Play's Christmas tour to Cuba has
been taking most of the attention of F-P and Student
Council chapters across the country (40 of the latter
to date) in recent weeks, there have also been some
other noteworthy activities.
In New York, some six hundred pickets from the
local F-P chapter and supporting organizations put on
a two-hour demonstration Saturday before the United
Nations headquarters, in vigorous protest against the
U.S. naval blockade established in the Caribbean to
fend off a mythical "invasion" from Cuba.
The slogan of the demonstration was "Hands Off
Cuba!" Among others displayed on the picket line the
one we liked best was "Send Federal Troops to Louisi-
ana, Not to Cuba!" Security begins at home after all.
A controversy of sorts erupted at the College of The
City of New York when Student Council organizers
there set up a speaking date on Thursday for Raul Roa,
Jr., Cuban minister plenipotentiary attached to the
Cuban Mission to the UN. A member of the faculty
objected, and was quoted as having said that no "un-
washed" Cuban would get his permission to speak at
CCNY. The upshot was a protest from the aroused
student body that brought an invitation from the Stu-
dent Government itself, instead of just one of the on-
campus clubs.
Michigan State University's Professor Samuel Sha-
piro, who had found himself in hot water after writing
a controversial article about Cuba in the New Republic
("I thought this sort of thing only happened to Corn-
Our mail-bag has been heavy with inquiries
concerning the Fair Play Christmas-in-Cuba
tour Dec. 23-Jan. 2 (ten days, all expenses for
$100 from Miami, $220 from New York), and
the telephones at F-P headquarters in Manhat-
tan have been ringing constantly.
Indications are that Cubana planes from
Miami will be jammed with Fair Play and
Student Council members coming in by air, bus,
train and private car from as far away as Cali-
fornia. Some students even plan to hitch-hike.
Chicago is sending a plane-load to Miami by
special charter. It is too early to know for sure,
but chances are that the New York flight will
be sold out.
This is by way of a reminder. We have to
know how many visitors to expect, so that
Havana can make plans, at least two weeks
beforehand.
That means that all reservations must be
made�and paid in full, by check or money
order�on or before December 10.
DECEMBER 10th IS YOUR LAST
CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR FAIR PLAY'S
munists. I'm not a Commie; I'm a loyal American!"),
addressed a Fair Play meeting Tuesday night in Cleve-
land.
And in California, Stanford U's Professor Paul Baran
was heard on tv. with economist Paul Sweezey, co-
author of Cuba: Anatomy of a Revolution, in a power-
ful defense of the Cuban Revolution.
On the Calendar of coming events:
IT Author Carleton Beals (The Crime of Cuba and
30-odd others books) speaks Monday evening, Dec. 5,
at the Community Church of New York, at a meeting
sponsored by the Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom. Subject: "Is Latin-America Going
the Way of Cuba?" (Editor: "I hope so." Beals: "Me,
too.") Beals also has speaking dates January 22 in
Philadelphia, and sometime in March in Racine, Wisc.
Afro-American reporter Williarn Worthy 'and New
York F-P chairman Richard Gibson speak Wednesday
evening, Dec. 7, at the Royal Manor, 157th & Broad-
way, in Manhattan, under the sponsorship of the Upper
Manhattan Committee for Racial Equality.
if I. F. Stone�who has been barnstorming without
leiiiffieiloston area�speaks there again at a Fair
Play meeting Saturday evening, Dec. 9.
IT C. Wright Mills, author of Listen, Yankee (Get your
paperback copy from Fair Play; 500), will be heard
coast-to-coast on NBC at 9:30 PM, EST, in a television
debate with Adolf Berle Jr., former under-secretary of
state for Latin-America Affairs. Subject: Cuba.
LOW COST, ALL EXPENSE CHRISTMAS-
IN-CUBA TOUR. So if you have not yet sent
in your reservation, DO IT TODAY!
Just fill out the coupon below and send it to:
FAIR PLAY TOUR
799 Broadway
New York 3, N. Y.
Please make reservation(s) for me on Fair
Play's all-expense Christmas-in-Cuba tour.
I wish to fly from New York 0 Miami fl
I will be accompanied by the following members
of my family:
Enclosed is my check or m.o. for
Price in full: $100 from Miami, including two-way
transportation and all expenses in Cuba; $220 non-
stop from New York.
FAIR PLAY. Published by the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, 799 Broadway, New York 3, N. Y. Robert Taber, Editor.
aftesmenewootEr:=0013
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