Word: cuba
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...tinnily in a reporter's accounting of desperate hours in the history of a people. And however it may fit the uses of a historical sum-up, it has even less use as an explanation of the course of seasoned Correspondent Matthews or of the vagaries of the Cuba story in the seasoned (108 years) New York Times...
...early editions of the Times for the morning after Castro resigned last week, Matthews speculated that the move came not from troubles within Cuba but out of resentment of U.S. criticism: "One must suppose that he has foreign policy and U.S. opinion mostly in mind. The attacks on him in the U.S. have wounded and angered him." But when Castro himself said that his resignation stemmed from his feud with the President of his own choosing, Manuel Urrutia Lleo (see THE HEMISPHERE), and that a lot of the trouble arose because Urrutia had spoken unkindly of the Communists, the Times...
Inside Song. In clearly choosing sides in Cuba's conflict. Herb Matthews, 59, was following a well-established pattern in his long, award-studded career. In 1929 he went to the Far East, where tension was already rising, came away feeling more sympathy toward the Japanese than the Chinese ("What I responded to, above all, was the charm and hospitality of the Japanese"). When Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935, Matthews enthusiastically supported the Italians, later wrote: "If you start from the premise that a lot of rascals are having a fight, it is not unnatural to want...
...high point of Matthews' pre-Cuba career came during the Spanish Civil War, in which he was outspokenly partisan for the Communist-backed Loyalist forces. At one point he was reproached by Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger for having made the Loyalist situation appear brighter than it was. Recalled he, in his 1946 book, The Education of a Correspondent: "Even then, heartsick and discouraged as I was, something sang inside of me. I, like the Spaniards, had fought my war and lost, but I couldn't be persuaded that I had set too bad an example...
Tinny Ring. Still recalling his Spanish experience, Matthews wrote: "I admit being highly susceptible to personal contacts, and this is a weakness in a newspaperman." That may be one of Herb Matthews' problems in covering Cuba, where he is viewed more as a revolutionary institution than a working newsman. Explained another Cuba correspondent last week: "Whether he likes it or not, Matthews is regarded as being a sort of father confessor of Fidel Castro's revolution." Returning to Cuba this month, he was wined and dined by top Cuban government officials, spent some ten hours in close conversation...