Word: somozaism
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...seldom get an eyewitness account of a TIME cover subject's reaction to our story about him at the time he first reads it. Therefore, the following account of Anastasio Somoza's reaction to his cover story may prove to be as interesting...
Nicaragua's dictator was attending a small dinner party with a group of intimate friends at Managua's Nejapa Country Club when his Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs entered with a copy of the November 15th issue of TIME with Somoza's portrait on the cover. It had just arrived on the evening plane with that week's shipment for Nicaragua...
...Somoza looked at his cover portrait and then turned the magazine over to a colleague, insisting that the cover story be read aloud so everyone could hear it. The colleague, translating from English into Spanish, had read about half of the story-amid considerable hilarity and joshing -when Somoza took over. Saying that the translation was not good enough, he proceeded to read the rest of the story himself, punctuating its adverse comment with his own remarks. He was happy to appear on TIME's cover and delighted that the issue would be on Nicaraguan newsstands on the 16th...
Later, R. C. Macoy, TIME's stringer in Guatemala, talked to Somoza about the story and the Dictator said: "Wasn't that something! I never "thought lightning would strike a little tree, but it did. Of course, it wasn't all true, but I don't mind that. Shows people I don't control TIME...
Macoy asked "Tacho" Somoza, who does control Nicaragua, just what part of the story wasn't true. "Oh, that stuff about me getting some money to pay somebody. That all came from the opposition, but I don't mind. Hell, when they (TIME Correspondent Jerry Hannifin) told me about doing a story, I said, 'Why bother about me? I'm a friend of the United States.' But they said they needed the story, so I said go ahead. Hell, that's a lotta propaganda - didn't cost me a penny...