Nation: Castro's Ransom

In a move as cynical as it was cruel, Cuba's Fidel Castro fortnight ago offered to exchange some 1,200 Cuban rebels, all captured in the disastrous, U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, for 500 heavy tractors, total cost of which would come to about $15 million to $20 million. Castro reckoned well on American humanitarianism (although his Communist propaganda line denies the existence of any such thing) and on an American guilt complex for having sent the Cuban rebels on their abortive mission. Within four days of his ransom demand, a committee of U.S....