Castro's Cuba Crumbles
From 1959, when Fidel Castro triumphantly proclaimed salvation for Cuba, to today's evidence of the decay of an abortive revolution, the world has had before it a stark, harsh example of the crippling cancer of Communism.
With the facts before us, with all of Castro's promises either unfulfilled or broken, with the stark story of a shattered country becoming clearer each day, one wonders how anyone in the free world searching for a political philosophy could believe in the "utopian" ideals of the Communist state.
IN THEORY, Communism is horrifying and repugnant. In practice, it is more lethal than nuclear attack because it destroys not life, but the spirit.
How did it happen in Cuba? When Castro wrenched Cuba from Dictator Fulgencio Batista's control in 1959, he was cheered and supported to the point of veneration by his country-men because he had promised them liberation.
Liberation—how a word can be twisted. Castro "liberated" Cubans from a prosperous sugar economy, recognition by the non-Communist world, economic support from all but Moscow and Peking.
Where he promised to bring freedom, Castro instead injected a massive dose of ideological curare, the drug which induces paralysis. The country which was to become independent from any rule has become what those who followed Fidel in 1959 would never have believed—a Communist satellite.
THE RUSSIANS CAN say that Soviet Communism has become firmly entrenched in Cuba. There is no doubt about it. Only three to four thousand Russian troops are considered necessary now to keep the country hewing to the Communist party line. Communism is in firm control in Cuba, but what has it achieved other than to cripple the country?
Seven years ago, Castro desired to convert Cuba from an agrarian economy, based on a prosperous sugar crop, to a Caribbean industrial colossus. Today, the agricultural economy has been destroyed, but still no industry of any significance has taken its place.
Castro has had to realize the folly of trying to convert the economy at the expense of agriculture, and this year the sugar crop is back up from a 1963 low of three million tons to its 1959 level of about six million tons in order to shore
up falling revenues. But because Cuba was under economic boycott, other countries have developed profitable sugar crops, and the international market rate has dropped from ten to two cents per pound. This year, Cuba cannot expect more than $130 million in income to supplement a daily $1 million per day Soviet aid.
TRANSPORTATION, SO vital to an industrial economy, is nil. Six years ago, 75 per cent of the railroads were described as "desperate" and today engineers conduct constant scavenger hunts for machinery that can be salvaged to patch up the railroad system. The three British planes at Havana airport are never in the air together—pilots and engineers must play musical chairs with the parts to keep one plane running.
And the people—no matter what the economic structure, it will fail if it is not supported by the people. The failure of Castro's whole program is underscored by the thousands of sorrowful Cubans who, for one reason or another, cannot support the bearded savior.
THE SORROW OF the people is the most concrete evidence of Cuba's decay. In 1959, Castro marched into Havana to the cheers and applause of 6 million Cubans. Today, 335,000 Cubans have gone into exile. Today, Castro has incarcerated more than 50,000 political prisoners and ordered executions for countless others. Almost 9,000 Cubans have fled across the Caribbean to seek refuge in the United States. U.S. intelligence sources report that no more than 30 per cent of Cubans support Castro today.
Even the rambunctious Fidel has started to crumble. He no longer savors his role, or performs with gusto. He is the most obvious testimony of his failure. He has finally admitted it, to some degree, by opening the port of Camarioca to all Cubans who have a means of coming to the U.S., the country he once said was "full of devils" and from which he promised to liberate Cuba.
THIS IS THE PATHETIC story we have all heard and seen in Eastern Europe, in China, in Russia and now in Cuba. This is the glory of Communism—where martial rule is necessary to "liberate" the people and where once fond hopes become shattered reality.
If we haven't seen it before, how can anyone now accept Communism as anything more than it is—a cruel, deadly ruse. — Karen Lambert
No Comment Dept.
SDS. UDK Editor Criticized
R. R.2
R. R. 2
Oskaloosa, Kans.
Oct. 9, 1965, Saturday
Bert C. Carlyle,
Publisher, Lawrence Outlook,
Lawrence Kansas
Dear Mr. Carlyle,
I read the article on the front page of "University Daily Kansan," of September 27, 1965, about your column charging that "Students for Democratic Society" is a Communist-front organization at KU. I agree heartily with you. I wanted to write you a letter of praise before this but did not learn your address till I looked at the editorial page of "University Daily Kansan" for yesterday.
Ever since becoming a Christian about ten years ago, I have known that Communism is Devil inspired—our pastor taught us—and that there are many Communist-front organizations. I returned to college to get a teaching certificate in June 1965, and I am attending KU currently continuing my studies.
During the summer, I went to one "Students for Democratic Society" (SDS) meeting because I had long been curious about such front organizations. They all have nice "American-sounding" names but they give our Communist propaganda designed to brain-wash the American people.
The meeting was held in the evening in the Kansas Union Building in the Oread Room, I believe. There were only about a dozen people there—both boys and girls.
Needless to say, they did not begin the meeting with prayer or Bible reading. They discussed raising money for their publication, "Kansas Free Press." They passed around a sample copy of it, which had a few vulgar-type cartoons or pictures and jokes, and articles criticizing government policy in international affairs.
Also, the group discussed their desire to have a literature distribution to all Negroes in North Lawrence. But they said they were deterred by the fact that Negro homes are interspersed among white homes in North Lawrence.
The people near me were talking among themselves openly and joking and said that something-or-other was "good for the revolution." I was surprised at their boldness.
The editorial yesterday in "University Daily Kansan" seemed to really give you a scolding. The author, Karen Lambert, one of the Editorial Editors, whom I do not know at all, is apparently brainwashed. She, like so many others, does not realize that Senator Joe McCarthy was a loyal American. What ignorance there is among the "educated" people! They are drawn to the Thing (pro-Communism) that will destroy them if given a chance. They are like the moth drawn to the candle.
Well, more power to you and God bless you.
Mrs. Vernon H. Newell
Daily Kansan Monday, October 18, 1965
P. S.
I've never been in such a "tough looking" group as at that SDS meeting. They looked like beat-nicks" with Castro-like beards, some girls in shorts.
I've heard on KCLO, that "Lawrence Outlook" features a weekly column by that conservative news commentator that our family likes so well. Mr.Paul Harvey. That's good commendation for you to have Mr.Harvey's column in your paper.
2
Outstanding Actors Steer 'Ship of Fools'
By Larry Ketchum
Kansan Reviewer
Take a dwarf, a political prisoner, a ship's doctor, a Jewish salesman, a racist magazine publisher, an elderly couple and their bulldog, a bumbling American, a horde of Spanish peons, and others, then put them all on a German ship in 1933 and out comes a motion picture not likely to be forgotten.
"Ship of Fools," based on Katherine Porter's novel, includes an assemblage of very competent actors (some are outstanding) who have proven themselves time and again throughout the years.
ONE OF THE outstanding actors is Michael Dunn, the dwarf. Dunn has overcome his small size with great acting ability and energy.
Dunn has a warmth and sincerity about him that is seldom seen on either the stage or in the films. Obviously not a "method" actor. Dunn has shown warmth, sincerity, and philosophical insight without pretending to be a carrot, a small man but a giant of an actor.
THE TWO MAJOR characters in the tragicomedy, the ship's doctor and a political prisoner, played respectively by Oskar Werner and Simone Signoret, turned in truly great performances.
Simone Signoret plays a woman who has seen everything but is still looking for something she cannot describe or even know.
Oskar Werner, star of "Jules et Jim" and acclaimed as one of Europe's finest Hamlets, is superb in his role of the ship's doctor. A man without hope, floating alone on the seas of the world, doctoring others while suffering his own physical and spiritual anguish—all this Werner reveals to his audience with a quiet earnestness.
LEE MARVIN, TOUGH man, has found his forte in comedy. Marvin captures American attitudes and character. Bumbling along, making his small troubles into grandiose catastrophes (he is depressed because he failed to hit a curve ball in a baseball game), gripping about the exorbitant price of a prostitute, this character raises genuine humor out of every situation.
"Ship of Fools" is currently being shown at the Granada Theatre.
The People Say In Defense of Thought
MY OWN VIEW of a Teach-In is that it is an opportunity for open discussion at which both sides of a case are equally presented and examined. I have been greatly disappointed that on the occasions of both the KU Teach-Ins repeated efforts on my part and on the part of other members of my committee to persuade well-known supporters of the administration's policy to speak have been unsuccessful, sometimes because the person approached was genuinely unable to attend, but, I regret to say, at other times for no reason which I could consider cogent. This creates two unfortunate impressions: first, that the administration's case is indefensible and secondly, that the Teach-In is overly one-sided. Neither of these suggestions is true and those who give them currency do a great disservice to the cause of democracy as well as to the educative process on this campus on important contemporary issues.
Errol E. Harris,
Department of Philosophy
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