The Comandante

The thing I noticed first about Fidel Castro, as he came into a room at the Cuban White House at 11pm for a TV interview, was how much taller he was than almost every other Cuban we had met in a two-week visit around the country and how stylish (and tailored) his fatigue uniform appeared. The interview went well -- in Spanish, of course -- and I thought a high point was when, in a discussion of the Middle East, he commented on the unpopularity and isolation of Palestinians by the surrounding countries. "The Palestinians," he concluded, "have serious values. They place a high regard on hard work, devotion to the family and education -- and yet they are virtual outcasts in their own Arab part of the world. You might say they are the Jews of the Middle East." I'd never heard it put just that way before -- or since.

After three nights -- each interview lasting roughly three hours -- of intense discussions about American foreign policy, his insistence on the great future for a socialist Cuba, major league baseball (about which he was extremely well-informed), the rise of China and, of course, the unfairness of the U.S. blockade and isolation of Cuba, we thought the sessions were over. Instead, he asked if we would like to tour Havana the next day in his jeep, with a cameraman in the back seat so the interview could continue. We accepted eagerly, and were astounded to see, at the appointed time the next morning, a rather routine ex-Army jeep pull up in front of the hotel with Castro himself driving, and no security personnel either on board or even visible -- no other vehicles.

And so began the strangest tourist day I've ever encountered. Here we were, for almost eight hours, driving around the teeming capita of what our journals of opinion all told us was a ruthless dictatorship under the grinding heel of Castro, among a people yearning to be free. And yet, he was driving as all the other drivers, stopping at the few traffic signals, keeping to his lane, and was everywhere cheered and waved to. We drove to the beach, where he parked the jeep, and went on the sand to greet the astonished sunbathers. And when his presence became known, hundreds of Cubans came out of the surf to cheer and surround him. Later, back in the jeep, I asked him how, after (this was 1974) more than 15 years, he retained his popularity, he replied, "It helps if you're three or four inches taller than anyone else in the country."

It was quite a day, and apparently not an isolated one. When we talked more about what seemed a genuine enthusiasm of the people for him, he said, "unlike your politicians, I go back to visit even after the campaign is over." I was too polite to note that in 15 years he had hardly gone through any campaigns, but it was still true he could drive easily around town with no danger, despite having issued every citizen a rifle, so as to repel, the government said, any repetition of the Bay of Pigs, a new U.S. invasion with which Cubans were regularly threatened.

We returned later in the year, after Nixon had resigned -- one jump ahead of impeachment -- and CBS had agreed to buy our documentary/interview, provided we could get an additional interview -- this time by Dan Rather, on the subject of what Castro expected from President Gerald Ford -- and that Castro would grant no other interviews prior to its appearance. Castro agreed, and the Rather interview (with me as an interpreter) went ahead. But at the same time, a horde of U.S. journalists appeared, accompanying Senators Jacob Javits (facing a tough reelection battle) of New York and Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I was afraid we'd lose the sale if any of these journalists got even a short interview, and was wondering how to broach this subject to the Comandante, when there was a knock on the door of my hotel room, interrupting me in the midst of shaving. I went to the door, and there was His Nibs himself, fatigue cap in hand. He explained he had come to me for advice on how to deal with the U.S. press, since he'd "never been involved in a Senate campaign before."

I explained our predicament -- that if another TV interview appeared before ours, CBS would cancel the deal and we would be -- in Spanish -- "arruinado. (ruined)," and I hoped he might refrain from talking to any of them on the record. He thanked me and left, returning briefly for his hat. He went straight to a group of the journalists, anxious for something like a press conference, before escorting the Senators to a special private meeting, where he explained he could not grant any interviews, because he had an agreement with "another group" to preserve their exclusivity, and they would be, if anyone preceded them, "arruinado. "Is that the Mankiewicz group?" inquired one of the reporters, "it is," answered Castro. "But they are amateurs," the American continued, "and we are professionals." "Yes, I know," Castro replied, "but they have the exclusive interview." And with that, he swept into the meeting room, with the Senators in tow, and preserved our exclusivity. Javits, as I recall, easily won reelection.

Comments

[Ping]

The United States Government has dealt with mad men and maniacs throughout it's history.

Currently we are negotiating with a man who is oppressing and starving his own people, Kim il whatshisface in North Korea. If the United States can make deals with North Korea then they can certainly negotiate an end to the standoff in Cuba with the Castro brothers. Let's be honest, Castro has been a benevolent dictator. McCain and Bush look like homocidal maniacs compared to the Castro brothers.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Castro '08.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Why Cuba Will Never Go Back
Watching the US Presidential Campaign from Havana

By FIDEL CASTRO

http://www.counterpunch.org/castro02232008.html

[Grulg]

HAHAHAHAHA­..urhm, HA. Castro by ANY definition, was a petty, nasty, violent, brutal, regional, DICTATOR. That's right guys-no different than, say, Pinochet or Stroessner or Milosovitch or Idi Amin. His death will be a Good Thing for Cuba, the Caribbean and the Cuban people in general. They should drop the embargo, sure, it's long outlived its usefulness, but c'mon. Castro as anything but a thug? Makes Nixon look cute and cuddly.

[littleblackcat]

It remains a fact that Fidel Castro has treated his people better than any republican has ever treated United States citzens. When he was being rough on them for whatever reason or another, he didn't bother couching it in lies either. I'll take the need for tightening the belt told honestly before I want to listen to bushit-style lies any day. Castro seems to have a lot more integrity than any of the current administration of this country. As for mccain, I wish people would get over their dumb kid-gloving of this warmonger because "He's a war hero!" War hero my dog's leg! He happens to come from a military family, and he was shot down and spent time in a POW camp. Yes, he was tortured, yes he suffered a broken arm that was never treated and has left him in difficulty, no, no one should be made to suffer needless pain. That said, none of this makes him a "war hero", it simply makes him a POW camp survivor. What is more, he is now ADVOCATING the same behaviour that he should have had more than enough of! The United States is now guilty of causing prisoners to be tortured, if not in this country, those captured are shipped to other countries to be tortured. What has happened to us? What happened to john mccain? He used to be a man of character and integrity, now he's just another republican hack, another filthy product of W.D.C.'s politics as usual. Anything to grab more for fewer and fewer. How many millions are finding their way into mccain'sprivate off-shore bank accounts so that he can cut and run to Paraguay?

[Pantelleria01]

Since I moved away from the USA to live on the Mediterranean three years ago I have been very happy. The money I makes goes much further than it did in USA. I enjoy my work better, the people are so sweet, the food is fresh, mostly local. The prices are good. I live in a much better house. My life seems richer. I buy Rum from Cuba. I have always loved Fidel. Leaving the violence, racism and cold fear of the USA has just been great. You can fly straight to Cuba from here. I hope he has some good years to enjoy his retirement. Fidel is a real man, real leader. Stand george Bush next to him and see what kind of nothing corporate America has set up for us.

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

Actually, Fidel has appointed his idiot son, Fidel W. Castro, as his successor. (Good one, Letterman!)

[Kafkaesque]

Fidel is my favorite dictator and I would be proud to have him as my president. The dictator we have now has done nothing but harm to his people and brought shame to our country. Que Viva Fidel

[normathumb]

Imagine if another country tried to invade America and spent millions of dollars trying to assassinate our president while doing everything possible to undermine our economy. I imagine we might suspend habeus corpus and arrest people without charges. We might torture them. We might hold them for years in secret prisons. We might spy on suspicious types within our own borders without any preceding court action. I am so proud to live in a country where that would never happen.
Truth is when Castro dies the Miami Cubans will go back with a vengence. They wont call it an invasion. They will call it a restoration, but calling it such wont make it so. They will liberate it from the people who have endured worse from America then from Castro. They are rather like the royalist tories who went to Canada after our revolution.

[Driver125]

"They are rather like the royalist tories who went to Canada after our revolution­."

Most of those are quite old or dead. Opposition to Castro among their descendants is more or less like a reflex action now. There's no way they are leaving the U.S. to go back to an impoverished Caribbean island. They might if you could restore the rights and properties that Fidel took away from their parents, but those are all pretty much gone, gone, gone.

[wiltmellow]

You must be mistaken.

Castro has horns and a tail and a slight hue of red. The poor Cubans are tortured daily in his prisons. They're all starving. They all hate him.

I know because I read a lot of US newspapers.

[racom]

Americas Pravda. So many newspapers, so little news, all print the same old lies. Where's Judith Miller when we DON'T need her?

[flanardiente]

Interesting. The NRA and the pro-gun people tell us that individual ownership of guns helps to prevent tyranny. And here we have a, well, a tyrant, handing out guns to the populace? Driving around town in a jeep, waving to people? You think Batista would have done that? Or Somoza? Or Jorge Arbusto, come down to that?

[racom]

Good grief, some one who actually reads and remembers the glorious exploits of the Vanderbilts on Wall Street of this country. 'We make money, kill the brown people if they get in the way'.

[livesimply]

Castro has minded the business of his people and his country for many years without interfering with anyone else's. The embargo is ridiculous, but hey, at least they get to keep their culture without getting americanized.

[racom]

Not so. John McCain said recently that Castro exports terrorism. Now as a Christian nation we have an obligation to take him out according to some religious 'wack job'.

[littleblackcat]

I have your name on the back of my truck as a bumpersticker; "Live simply so that others may simply live". It's a good piece of advice, and as you pointed out, Fidel Castro minded the business of his people and his country. The Americans, those without the compassion and intelligence to think for themselves, have been the only ones sneering at Cuba. If the Cuban people have been so very dissillusioned by Castro, they certainly haven't shown it by overthrowing him. Yes, we have a number of disaffected Cubans in this country, but if I could find some rich republican willing to foot the bill for me to ex-patriate to the country of my choice, along with my pets, I can be ready to go in 21 days. (I'd like to give reasonable notice to my employer)

[margie4]

Hi Frank, Margot K here. Just saw Mank last weekend and asked him to send my love. I couldn't have asked for a better political mentor than you. love m.

[playera]

Castro has undoubtedly done some bad things to his political enemies, people who should be protected by human rights. On the other hand he has remained in power with the support of the Cuban people. I met a Cuban Vice Mayor of Old Havana. He described their elections and how he was elected. He became a candidate by being proposed from his neighborhood precinct. His precinct nominated him and elected him as candidate for vice-mayor. He later won the city election. It sounded pretty free and open to me. It sounded like grass roots support, not a party apparatus, brought him up as candidate.

We should have dropped the blockade years ago. Cuba now is simply a favorite target of US bullies.

[Boyaca]

He is a great man. All who have met him were impressed with his intelligence. Whatever you think of him, he survived every dirty attempt on his life by the CIA and their criminal organization. I have been to Cuba seven times. It is easily the best country in the Carribean despite the best efforts of the most powerful country in the world to ruin it. I salute Fidel Castro. He is a true heroe in the traditional sence. He could have written his own ticket, but chose instead to stick with, and fight for his people.

[puakev]

Right, a great man who promised elections then when he took power famously declared, "Elecciones? Para que?" and then proceeded to imprison or liquidate those who disagreed with him.
If Cuba is truly such a fantastic country, then why is it that every year scores of Cubans risk their lives by fleeing the country in rickety boats into the Gulf of Mexico so they can come to the United States? Sorry, I'm all for helping the poor and fighting social and economic injustice, but I cannot condone Castro's Cuba. Castro's "dictatorship of the proletariat" is still a dictatorship.

[IntelligenceIsBliss]

They probably come here for the same reason that hundreds of thousands of other people from throughout Latin America come here: money.

No one calls the governments of Mexico and Guatemala and Honduras etc. the kind of names Castro's govt. is called, even though they are essentially right-wing juntas or plutocracies. It's all about private property and the exploitation of labor and natural resources.

Cuba doesnt allow US corporations to exploit them, therefore they are our "enemy." Like Venezuela is now, too.

[paixa3]

...and I believe that you think the USA has honest elections.­...

Get a grip on life eh? You obviously need it.

[marbiol]

HE'S MY HERO!!!

GREAT EDUCATION, MEDICAL, FREE PRESS, HUMAN RIGHTS!!

CUBA HAS IT ALL!!!

I REMEMBER BACK IN 1987 WHEN I WAS A VOLUNTEER AT THE PAN AMS IN INDY--FIDEL CALLED HIS WEIGHTLIFTING COACH TO "ENCOURAGE" HIS LIFERS TO BEAT THAT TRAITOR ROBERTO URRUTIA (A FORMER JR WORLD CHAMPION) WHO ESCAPED FIDEL'S UTOPIA BY CLIMBING OUT OF A WINDOW IN MEXICO CITY--HE GAVE UP A PRIVILEGED LIFE AS A CHAMPION ATLETE TO BECOME A TRUCK DRIVER IN MIAMI!!! WHAT A DUMBO!!!

OF COURSE...I JUST FOUND OUT THAT ONE OF THE OTHER CUBAN LIFTERS WHO COMPETED AGAINST URRUTIA THAT DAY ...IS NOW LIVING IN PUERTO RICO!!!

MAYBE MR MANKIEWICZ HAS MORE INSIGHT THAN MR URRUTIA AND MR LARA...[NO­T TO MENTION ALL THOSE NAMELESS/FACELESS CUBANS WHO HAVE RISKED THEIR LIVES TO COME TO THIS IMPERIALIST COUNTRY--HOW MANY US CITIZENS HAVE 'EMIGRATED" TO CUBA???]

[guajiro]

Any one who leaves Cuba will find a well-financed and eager group of wealthy former Cubans who will parade the individual around for the press and media to see, especially if the person can concoct some story about how bad life is in Cuba. This storyline has been repeated thousands and thousands of times, so much so that the credibility of those regaling us with those stories and the obvious financial motives of the former Cubans who support them is transparent.

[runswithscissors]

When Castro opened the border for anyone who wanted to leave, MANY more stayed. I lived in Miami for 17 years and the typical story among most of the Cubans I've known is the same story we hear from the Bush crowd here...why should I pay taxes to support other people? Castro regards these people as dead weight anyway, hence his opening of the border on several occasions. While far from perfect, I'd take Castro over any US president of my lifetime.

As a side note, our tax dollars have been heaped upon the Cuban immigrants to gain their favor...mo­st of whom vote Republican because, ironically, they hate entitlements and are against illegal immigration. Meanwhile the large number of Haitiian immigrants that also live in Miami get nothing but dirty looks and all the blame for any problem you can imagine.