[Editor's Note: It's a mistake to view historical events or
national leaders in black or white terms. Fidel Castro slaughtered a lot
of people-innocent and guilty-after he took over power in Cuba. He's not
my idea of a Good Guy. At the same time, the US governement had attempted
to co-opt Castro for their own ends and he didn't play ball with them, so
after failing to invade Cuba, the US government imposed an unjustified embargo
on Cuba and its people which has caused decades of unnecessary suffering
and denial of modern goods and services. ..Ken]
By Charles A. Morse
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/fidelourmanincuba11aug05.shtml
Original web posted May 1, 2000
Forward courtesy of Jeannesuhr9@aol.com <Jeannesuhr9@aol.com>
American complicity in the Cuban "Revolution" 1958-1960,
our role in toppling the Batista government, and our installation of Castro
and his gang of Communist murderers, is a story not widely reported. My
primary source is American Policy Failures in Cuba by Mario Lazo. Incredibly,
our government, particularly the Eisenhower State Department along with
the New York Times and other major media outlets, assisted Fidel Castro
and ousted Batista. This meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign
state resulted in the murder, by the communists, of tens of thousands of
innocent people and the enslavement of an entire population which, to this
day, chafes under the steel tipped jackboot of a left wing Communist dictatorship.
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, while no saint, was a far cry
from the monstrous apparition portrayed in the "liberal" American
media. The truth is that Batista, while tolerating a level of corruption,
abolished the death penalty, granted amnesty to his political opponents
including Castro, and presided over the most prosperous economy in Latin
America in the 1950s. Cuba had developed these enormous centros, or clubs
with memberships ranging from ten to ninety thousand people. For around
three dollars a month, members enjoyed health, educational, and recreational
benefits. In fact, according to the U.S.Dept. Of Commerce, Cuba had developed
excellent healthcare and high educational standards including literacy.
Castro would take credit for these advancements after the fact and his American
robots would repeat his "statistics", Hitler style, and continue
to do so. What good is literacy, for that matter, if the State decides what
you're allowed to read and not read?
January 1957 found Castro and his 18-man group hiding out
in the Sierra Maestre Mountains of Cuba's eastern Oriente province. At a
time when Castro had no support and was near starvation, he was able to
make contact with New York Times Latin American specialist Herbert L. Matthews.
Matthews had a proven track record of support for Communist causes and was
the type of leftist who thought it a virtue to bend the truth to help the
cause. He had been reprimanded by the Times for this in his reportage of
the Spanish Civil War of 1938-1939. Matthews's mendacious series, appearing
on the Times front page, falsely described Castro's force as powerful and
well armed and also not Communist. Matthews was more than just a Castro
lapdog, he actively conspired with State Dept. officials to depose Batista
and helped Castro at every opportunity during his tenure in Havana 1957-1958.
American media, following Matthews lead, jumped on the pro Castro bandwagon,
including Edward R. Murrow. This alone, legitimized and, in a sense, created
Castro.
William A. Wieland, director of the office of Middle American
Affairs and Roy R. Rubottom, Asst. Sec. Of State for Inter-American Affairs,
according to Senate testimony conspired to install Castro. Both men had
been present at the "Bogatozo"1948, in which the Conference of
American States was interrupted by Communist guerillas including the Castro
brothers and Che Guevara. The ensuing riots resulted in over a thousand
murders and the burning of most of Bogata Columbia.
A letter from Castro to other leftist groups in Cuba, in which
he explicitly states his intention to proclaim himself as the "source
of law", and his intention to abolish the legislature and judiciary,
and to ban political parties other than his own, left no doubt as to whether
or not Castro was a Communist. This letter was in the possession of Wieland
and Rubottom. The "Bogatozo", the Castro letter, and a steady
stream of information concerning Castro's political orientation leave no
doubt that Wieland, Rubottom, and Matthews knew Castro was a Communist,
and yet they actively supported him every step of the way. Their motivation
is an unanswered question.
Wieland and Rubottom were greatly assisted in their pro-Castro
activities by Dr. Milton Eisenhower, President Eisenhower's brother and
chief advisor. Dr. Eisenhower could be described as entirely sympathetic
to the pro Castro cause. Needless to say, there was little opposition to
the plan concerning Castro.
January of 1958, Wieland, after visiting Havana in his new
capacity of Acting Special Ambassador to Latin America, issued a false report
concerning Cuba's "crumbling" economy with the recommended solution
being the removal of Batista. This was one of the best periods economically
in Cuba's history.
March 14, 1958, the State Dept., on Wieland's recommendation,
placed an arms embargo on Cuba. This sent a clear signal to Castro that
the US Government was abandoning Batista and undermined Batista's generally
strong support from the Cuban people. Meanwhile, arms, finances, and adoring
press reports continued to flow to Castro from American sources and with
the tacit approval of the Justice Dept. and the INS. The State Dept. also
made assurances that no other Latin American government would help Batista.
This was obviously direct intervention, on behalf of Castro, by our Government.
During the period immediately preceding Batista's departure
from the country, Wieland and Rubottom maintained almost daily contact with
Castro's representative, Ernesto Betancourt, and with Herbert Matthews of
the Times. Many plans, including one from the Vatican, were presented to
solve the Cuban crisis. These suggestions would involve supervised elections
and would remove both Batista and Castro from the scene. Wieland and company
undermined all of these plans, including one from Eisenhower's personal
envoy, William D. Pawley.
General elections were held on November 3, 1958. Castro, from
his mountainous retreat, called for the assassination of all candidates
and threatened to machine gun anyone showing up at the polling places. The
election was generally viewed as rigged in favor of the government's candidate,
Dr. Andres Rivero Aguero.
On December 14, 1958 Wieland, speaking for the State Dept.
instructed the American Ambassador to Cuba, Earl E.T.Smith, to inform Batista
that he no longer had the support of the US government and that he should
leave Cuba at once. This interview brought about the fall of the Batista
government. Castro could not have accomplished this without the help of
the State Deptartment. William D. Pawley, after Batista's departure, stated
the following:
"I believe that the deliberate overthrow of Batista by
Wieland and Matthews, assisted by Rubottom, is almost as great a tragedy
as the surrendering of China to the Communists by a similar group of Dept.
of State officials fifteen or sixteen years ago and we will not see the
end in cost of American lives and American recourses for these tragic errors."
Charles A. Morse
Chuck Morse is a syndicated talk show host on the American
Freedom Network and a contributing writer to Enter Stage Right and Etherzone.
All information posted on this web site is
the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
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