The Press: The Times & Cuba

New York Timesman Herbert L. Matthews, veteran foreign correspondent and champion of causes, scored an enviable news beat in 1957, when he made his way into the mountain fastness of Cuba's Oriente province, became the first U.S. newsman to interview Rebel Leader Fidel Castro. Matthews reported not only that Castro was alive (the Batista government had been claiming him dead), but that he represented Cuba's future. Wrote Matthews: "He has strong ideas of liberty, democracy, social justice, the need to restore the constitution, to hold elections."

Last week, with Castro's ideas of liberty, democracy and social justice in serious question, with Cuba's constitution ignored at Castro's fancy, with elections not even in prospect, Herb Matthews was back in Cuba. He had been disturbed by growing U.S. criticism of the Castro regime. "The Cuba story was getting all confused in New York," he told a fellow reporter. "I thought I'd come down."

He found that nothing—or almost nothing—had changed since he first fell under Castro's spell. Said he: "The only difference I saw was that he's putting on weight around the middle." With other newsmen—including the Times's fulltime Cuba correspondent, Ruby Hart Phillips —reporting growing discontent with the Castro regime, growing concern about Communist influence, Matthews presented a far brighter picture. Items from Matthews' Page One story last week: <J "This is not a Communist revolution in any sense of the word, and there are no Communists in positions of control." Matthews offered a remarkable proof: "Even the agrarian reform, Cubans point out with irony, is not at all what the Communists were suggesting, for it is far more radical and drastic than the Reds consider wise as a first step to the collectivization they, but not the Cubans, want." But as early as April 23, Times-woman Ruby Phillips, in a story run by the Times (over Matthews' strong objections), reported in detail on "a Communist pattern in the development of the revolutionary program." Again, in May, Ruby Phillips wrote: "Since the victory of the Castro revolution last Jan. i, the Communists and the 26th of July movement have been in close cooperation." Most newsmen agreed. <J "The unrelenting enemies Dr. Castro has made because of his agrarian reform and economic measures are few, have no mass backing and are unarmed," wrote Matthews. On the same subject, Colleague Phillips had reported: "Many people with modest savings, as well as the wealthy class, have invested in land and property . . . and they now see themselves stripped of their possessions. They are greatly disillusioned." <I Where Matthews reserved the word "dictator" for Cuba's ousted President Fulgencio Batista, he sees Castro's regime as a benevolent sort of one-man rule. Wrote he: "Premier Castro is avoiding elections in Cuba for two reasons. He feels that his social revolution now has dynamism and vast popular consent, and he does not want to interrupt the process. Moreover, most observers would agree that Cubans today do not want elections."