Word: castros
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...somewhat different interpretation is also possible. Perhaps the non-aligned states like the Russians more than they do the United States and therefore are less disposed to censure Soviet policies. Many of them certainly have good ideological reasons for such a preference. Tito and Castro are avowed communists, and some neutrals with colonial memories slip easily into a Leninist conception of capitalist states as inherently exploitative and aggressive in their foreign policies...
Once in power. Castro promptly confirmed the suspicions that had bothered many reporters-but not Herb Matthews. After bathing Cuba in blood-551 drumhead executions in four months-Castro edged steadily leftward, toward the shadow of Moscow. What had been a tyranny under Batista remained one under Castro. But even as other newsmen, among them Ruby Hart Phillips, the Times's Havana correspondent for 24 years, reported these facts, Matthews stuck by his adopted rebel. Castro "insists he wants friendship" with the U.S., wrote Matthews in March 1959, "While welcoming American investments, he says he would prefer American loans...
...Pushed. With little alteration. Matthews sang Fidelity for four years. His misplaced loyalty continued to color the Times's editorials on Cuba (which, curiously, still remain a Matthews responsibility). Those who saw Castro's Cuba in a harsher light he branded as "distorted, unfair, ill-informed and intensely emotional"-accusations more accurately leveled at Matthews (who once admitted that "I would never dream of hiding my own bias or denying...
Intended as a ringing defense of his own reporting on Cuba, his book only demonstrates how wrong Matthews was then, and how wrong he is now. The reporter who adopted a rebel has now become Castro's apologist: "Let me repeat that I am not making a moral judgment in saying that given the problems he faced, internally and externally, given the character of the Cuban people, and given his determination to make a radical, social revolution. Fidel came up with a logical answer." Besides, says Matthews. Castro did not necessarily turn left; he may have been pushed: "Historians...
Historians will also have to weigh the damage that Timesman Matthews did by glorifying Castro, the damage he did with his Times editorials, which were influential in delaying U.S. recognition of the true dimensions of the Cuban problem. But with self-assurance. Herb Matthews has already decided what the historians will say: "The only monument I want to leave on earth is for some student years from now to consult the files of The New York Times for information about the Cuban Revolution, and find my byline, and know that he can trust...