Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR CASTRO'S CUBA In his valuable and perceptive supplement, "Castro's Cuba: A Revolution Betrayed?" (NL, March 27), Theodore Draper devotes over four pages to an attack on my book, Red...
...He then continues to say that I accept "Batista's and Trujillo's sources uncritically...
...In addition to completely misconstruing the Castro revolution before the Senate and people of the United States, Rubottom and Wieland share responsibility, as I have repeatedly pointed out, for State Department policy which favored Castro at every turn and which pulled the rug out from the Batista regime by imposing an arms embargo on Cuba...
...And it is most revealing that Weyl should deliberately withhold such information from his readers because he disagreed with it—-that he should not merely differ with it but suppress it...
...I identify Faustino Perez as Communist "on the basis of Batista's sources...
...Since he is mentioned only once in my book, I saw no reason to comment on his brief period of truancy...
...Had I quoted Tahernilla, I might have been subjected to fresh charges by writers such as Draper that I make uncritical use of the testimony of agents of dictatorships...
...5. Draper implies that the charge that Fidel Castro became a Soviet agent while in his twenties comes solely from disgruntled Batista officials...
...Regular armies are not defeated by public opinion...
...By contrast, the appraisals of such writers as Jules Dubois, Herbert L. Matthews, Charles 0. Porter and Robert J. Alexander have either been refuted by events or else have suffered continuous revision...
...7. Weyl's insistence on identifying Faustino Perez as a Communist borders on obsessive veneration for intelligence reports which cannot now be checked...
...The latter, if they are trying to use Communists for their own ends, build up independent organizations loyal to them personally and groups which can be thrown against the Communists in case of a showdown...
...We agree that it was never a. mass movement...
...He wanted power transferred to the leaders of the Cuban democratic parties and...
...True...
...But as a preliminary step it might help if he would get his facts straight once in a while, especially about me...
...wanted the Castro movement repudiated because of the extent to which it was Communist infiltrated...
...2. I didn't merely charge Weyl with using "a lurid series of articles" as if it were "a serious historical source...
...According to the sworn testimony of three American Ambassadors, this last move was decisive in insuring Castro's victory...
...When I state that my source analyzes the background of Matos' "arrest and imprisonment," it should be evident that Matos is currently being persecuted for hostility to Communism...
...When a tiny force of rebels beats professional combat regiments without fighting battles, it is safe to infer sellout or demoralization of military leadership...
...I referred to what Díaz Balart had said about Castro's affiliations as a student in the University of Havana...
...Hence, he viewed the Cuban revolution with immense hope, feels protective toward those of its leaders who have broken with Communism and is still reluctant to face the hard realities of Communist dictatorship even though he has made considerable progress in this matter...
...chief count" against...
...I have rejected much material from these quarters and checked that which I have used to the best of my ability...
...If that represents "immense hope," Nathaniel Weyl is a secret agent of Castro...
...1. Let me first advert to general matter...
...State Department official William Arthur Wieland is that he arranged to have the then newly appointed U.S...
...Gamal Abdel Nasser has followed the second course...
...Ambassador to Cuba, Earl E. T. Smith, briefed by proCastro newspaperman...
...If he is implying that I believe the only significant "misdeed" of then Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs Roy Rubottom was that he told a Senate Committee that "there was no evidence of any organized Communist element within the Castro movement or that Senor Castro was himself under Communist influence," he is again mistaken...
...Castro has attached himself to a number of vastly different movements and organizations as they happened to suit his needs and ambitions at the time...
...I have used similar figures in my second edition, but draw somewhat different conclusions...
...Second, Draper still believes that Fidel Castro is not a Communist, but is merely using Communist support to gratify his craving for absolute personal power...
...This may seem unimportant to Draper, whose early appraisals of the Castro revolution were ambivalent, but it is nevertheless vital that the men charged with direct responsibility for American foreign policy avoid catastrophic blunders which bring with them vast chains of evil consequences...
...Diaz Balart testified under a. language handicap...
...Its source is Salvador Diaz-Versón, who was chief of Cuban Military Intelligence under the liberal Government of Prío Socarras and who went into exile when Batista seized dictatorial power...
...As succinctly as possible I shall try to rebut these charges although my library is in Washington and I am in Florida...
...But I charged him with something far more serious...
...If the character of these articles were the only point at issue, the sin might be a venial one...
...4. Draper points out that I ignore Rafael Diaz Balart's testimony to the same effect as Cabell's...
...There were military sell-outs to Castro but they were reflections of a much larger and deeper phenomenon—the popular revulsion against Batista's regime along with its utter corruption and inner rot...
...Weyl does not tell his readers that any of these things happened, let alone explain them...
...The former work for the absolute hegemony of those forces controlled by the party...
...Could it be that some readers might have had uncomfortable doubts about his thesis if he had mentioned it...
...3. The point about General Cabell is not whether he was right or wrong...
...The least that can be said of this treatment of Matos is that it is peculiarly inept...
...The idea for Red Star Over Cuba was formulated in January 1960...
...NL, March 27), Theodore Draper devotes over four pages to an attack on my book, Red Star Over Cuba...
...I am grateful to learn that I have made "considerable progress...
...9. I reiterate that this was the chief count in his book...
...During the period of more than a year between January 1960 and the present, the basic assertions made in Red Star Over Cuba have been confirmed by history to such an extent that, whereas I was attacked for extremism in 1960, I am today sometimes criticized for laboring the obvious...
...Was General Cabell also "appeasementminded...
...Why did he protest against the persecution of Hubert Matos...
...As for the charges against Rubottom, most of them come from former Ambassador Arthur Gardner, whose sickening obsequiousness before Batista disastrously compromised the United States in the estimation of every democratic-minded Cuban and whom Weyl evidently regards as an irreproachable authority...
...My decision to eliminate a matter which, in my judgment, was extraneous to the topic I was then discussing, earned for me Draper's patronizing comment that Cuban politics can be "much more complex" than I imagine...
...I am criticized for not pointing out that U.S...
...And some 30 pages later, he transformed this anonymous third-hand information into an established fact...
...We agree that it was not generated by economic oppression and that the masses of Cuba were well off by Latin American standards...
...Why was he purged from Castro's cabinet in November 1959...
...If Draper is alluding to Joseph Martin and Philip Santora of the New York Daily News, he might have added that they have done three series on Cuba over the years and for the first series they won the Pulitzer Prize...
...The detailed counts of his indictment are, for the most part, erroneous, irrelevant or matters of misinterpretation...
...I am charged with treating "A lurid series of articles in a sensation-mongering New York tabloid as a serious historic source...
...5. I would be much more impressed if Weyl promised to produce some evidence from those who knew Fidel Castro intimately during this period...
...My alleged sins are these: (a...
...its accuracy on this matter is confirmed by the former Chief of Cuban Naval Intelligence in World War II, an enemy of Batista, (b...
...The victory of this tiny force over a. combat army of about 6,500 convinces him that Castro won because the Cuban people were with him...
...Reply: The footnote refers to a Batista police report...
...6. I was aware of the fact that Raul Roa attacked the Soviet Union for its suppression of the Hungarian Revolt in 1956...
...Cuban politics is immensely complex and writers who are unable to eliminate the irrelevant lose themselves in the labyrinthine maze...
...If it is necessary to spell this out, I have no objection to doing so in subsequent editions if any are issued...
...I did state that he facilitated the passage of known Communist leaders into Fidel Castro's headquarters in 1957 on the latter's direct orders...
...the manuscript was submitted in July and the book appeared in December...
...Second, an interpreter was present at the hearings and there is every reason to believe that Díaz Balart was able to express himself quite clearly, especially on this point...
...The point is that the testimony of such a high authority has an important bearing on the culpability of members of the State Department who had voiced similar view many months earlier...
...6. Weyl still has much to learn about Raul Roa...
...Incidentally, Díaz-Versón's testimony takes up 14 pages in the records of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and mentions the names of many Cuban Communists, open and "underground...
...In any case, his first edition cannot be acquitted of irresponsibility on the basis of revisions made in the second one...
...4. This one runs true to form...
...Smith's advice was ignored in Washington...
...8. Draper calls my comment on Matos, which he so egregiously misinterprets, "blunder...
...I cite Cuban underground source to the effect that Hubert Matos "worked for the Communists 'as early as 1957,' without saying a word about the price Matos has paid for his anti-Communism...
...Then, in the spring of 1958, the United States imposed an arms embargo on Cuba, thus making it perfectly clear that Batista was through...
...I decided not to do so because I considered this to be a disastrously bad intelligence appraisal and knew that it was not shared by members of the CIA whose judgment I respect...
...The assertion that State Department policy "favored Castro at every turn" is one of those wild exaggerations I refuse to take seriously...
...But what is really significant is that Weyl has nothing to say in defense of his misrepresentation and sensationalizing of that briefing...
...9. Draper is in error when he states that my The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...Indeed, it is ironic that Weyl gives Castro credit for far more political integrity and consistency than the latter deserves...
...We agree that the peasants and workers were apathetic toward it...
...Some of Smith's subordinates were Castro enthusiasts, but he had the sense not to take their advice...
...Neither of these has been remotely "confirmed by history," and the more I study the development of the Cuban revolution, the less I believe in them...
...But where in the world did he get the idea that I viewed the Cuban revolution with "immense hope...
...The latter testified about the situation in 1959...
...8. The case of Faustino Perez demonstrates better than anything else how "critically" Weyl has used Batista's and Trujillo's sources...
...that is what makes his present behavior so shocking to his former friends...
...In Cuba, he was attacked by Batista partisans on the floor of the Cuban Congress and demands were publicly made that he be declared persona non grata...
...This contrast should lead the dispassionate observer to the prima facie conclusion that my source material is fundamentally sound, since it is most improbable that correct conclusions could derive from untrustworthy data...
...As for Matos, Weyl does not bother to explain why Matos was arrested and imprisoned...
...A man should also be judged by his known political actions, not merely by secret police dossiers, notoriously fallible in political matters...
...I mentioned Ambassador Smith's antiCastro position to suggest that his famous briefing by Herbert L. Matthews could not have been as calamitous as Weyl tried to make it...
...It included Ché Guevara and Raul Castro in the latter category-—but never Fidel Castro...
...I forgive him for telling me what I yearn for...
...Fidel Castro the first...
...Third, other responsible friends of Fidel at the University, such as Luis Conte Agüero, have pointedly failed to describe Fidel as a student Communist...
...I am taken to task for not having quoted Batista's Chief of Staff, General Francisco Tahernilla, to the effect that the Cuban people were sick of Batista...
...We agree that he is building a totalitarian state and that he has probably (I say, definitely) passed the point of no return in the subordination of Cuba to Moscow and Peking...
...But he chooses to say nothing of this in his rebuttal...
...I ended that article as follows: "Castro once spoke of his revolution as 'liberty with bread and without terror.' If he continues to push too hard, too fast, and too far, Cuba may yet have more terror without either bread or liberty...
...He merely cites an unidentified source about Matos' alleged connection with "known Communist activists" in 1957—and he does so in a section devoted to exposing Communists in the Castro movement...
...I pointed out that, on one highly significant point, he quoted the authors of these articles who in turn quoted an unnamed man "who was close to Fidel...
...The fact that less than a thousand Cubans were willing to fight in the mountains disposes of the myth that the Castro movement was a mass upheaval against social injustice or crusade for which young Cuba was prepared to die...
...They probably were...
...We disagree on merely two points of substance: First, Draper appears to yearn for some sort of democratic socialism...
...The essential Castro is lost by making him into a consistent Communist since the age 21...
...3. I am taken to task for not quoting General C. P. Cabell, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who testified in November 1959 that he believed Castro was "not member of the Communist party...
...Reply: This is crass misinterpretation...
...Delray Beach, Flu...
...What I have refused to do is assume that the reliability of Government documents is directly related to the degree of democracy in the countries of their origin, or that an honest official who continues in office under various administrations becomes liar and a. scoundrel the minute the regime ceases to be democratic...
...Smith was entirely right in wanting Batista to get out in favor of provisional government which would hold free elections...
...General middle-class discontent with Batista had not yet crystallized into fervent support of Fidel Castro...
...I said that other testimony before the Senate subcommittee "might not have been irrelevant...
...Draper cites figures to the effect that Castro had only 300-800 men in April 1958...
...In any event, Tahernilla is trying to find excuses for his failure as military commander and is referring to the winter of 1958, when everything was disintegrating...
...We agree that Fidel Castro has welched on his political promises...
...This is not the place to attempt to sort out the "larger matters" on which Weyl and I agree and disagree...
...Draper and I agree that the Castro revolution was instigated, led and fought by the middle class...
...Why did Perez refuse to make a deal with the Communists during the abortive strike of April 1958...
...First, my reference to Díaz Balart's testimony was not "to the same effect" as General Cabell's...
...I decided to quote from his testimony only where it conformed with what he told me during bilingual interview where there was no possibility of misunderstanding...
...Ambassador "Earl Smith was so 'antiCastro' that his subordinates pleaded with him in vain to be less partisan...
...The second edition of Red Star Over Cuba contains new and detailed evidence supporting my assertion...
...Quite outside of the evidence in my book concerning Castro's Red background (evidence which Draper does not present fairly), there is a rather simple touchstone which enables one to differentiate between Communist and nonCommunist dictators...
...Or does Weyl represent an indiscreet and dissident faction in the CIA...
...In some ways—since his position today is ambiguous—Perez's case seems to resemble Roa's...
...At this point, the generals, the junior officers and the civilian officials began to switch sides, selling out to Castro or making deals with him...
...7. Draper next proceeds with an emotional attack on me which is unworthy of a scholarly writer...
...I came back from Cuba, as my first article in the Reporter of May 12, 1960, clearly shows, with immense apprehensions...
...Thus these men, either through incompetent evaluation or malign intent, share guilt for bringing oppression to the Cuban people and disastrous diplomatic defeat to the United States...
...Nathaniel Weyl Theodore Draper replies: Nathaniel Weyl's "rebuttal" only succeeds in giving me further reason to question his standards of fact and fairness...
...1. Two of the "basic assertions" in Red Star Over Cuba are that Fidel Castro was a "trusted Soviet agent" as early as 1948 and that "appeasement-minded" officials of the State Department were largely responsible for handing Cuba over to the Communists...
...This is false...
...He had been seemingly principled antiCommunist for years...
...That was no "brief period of truancy...
...2. Now to specific matters...
...However, Roa has returned to the fold...
...I did not imply that Matos was Communist or that he "worked for the Communists" in 1957...
...It would be much more convincing if Weyl would get Díaz Balart to repudiate the portion of his testimony which I quoted...
...11...
...Of the three references to Wieland in his index, two concern the briefing of Ambassador Smith, and the third is general in nature...
Vol. 44 • April 1961 • No. 16
