CONFIDENTIAL FILE

U.S. ‘Big Stick’ Attitude Deplored

Fidel Castro, the bearded boy wonder of Cuba, has been sassing his kindly, benevolent, slightly wealthy Uncle Sam lately.

Young Fidel has taken it as a personal insult that a few of our
congressmen are suggesting tough measures to let him know that we don’t
like the way he’s doling out justice to the beaten men of Fulgencio Batista’s crumbling dictatorship.

The lad is most annoyed at one Rep. Wayne Hays (D-Ohio), chairman of the House foreign affairs subcommittee, for the latter’s suggestion that we cut off U.S. credit to Cuba, or stop importing Cuban sugar.

Fidel states flatly that how he disposes of his country’s "war criminals" is none of our business.

And I — for one — reluctantly agree.

I am as sick as the next person at wire-service photos of people getting their heads blown off by Castro’s firing squads.


But how this should become an issue in official U.S. foreign policy
toward Cuba’s new government, I don’t know. It’s their internal affair.
They fought the revolution. We didn’t.

We’ve assumed — and rightfully so — an international obligation to
help protect the free world. But we don’t have a license to meddle
where we’re neither needed nor wanted.

From a ruthlessly realistic point of view, the biggest mistake Castro
could make now would be to grant amnesty to his enemies, or to let them
off with deportation. Batista made that error with Castro five years
ago. He turned him loose.

From their cushioned seats in Washington, some U.S. politicians don’t
seem to grasp that the rebels in Cuba weren’t just playing games.

And another lesson which these same politicos apparently have failed to
learn is that other people like to run their own countries. Dollars and
special favors may buy occasional votes in this country, but they
aren’t necessarily a medium of exchange elsewhere. What other people
seem to appreciate most is respect.

That applies double for Latin America.

From Mexico south to the Straits of Magellan, every man, woman, burro
and child lives under the shadow of our economic superiority.

We’re the big one. Quite possibly, we could make or break any country
in this hemisphere. This is our legacy. It’s something our forefathers
fought and sweated and worked and voted for: To make us strong.

Disapproves Big-Stick Tactics

But I question whether they did it so we could shake big sticks at little neighbors on matters which don’t concern us.

I’m no authority on the Latin mind.

However, it doesn’t take an expert to sense the distaste which too many Latin peoples have developed for their rich northern tio.

That’s a resentment which we should be able to overcome by sincere
diplomacy — by exhibiting a constructive interest in their problems.

But so long as men like Rep. Hays go around with bully complexes, it’s not going to be easy.

And it should be.

If there’s anything we must do now, it’s to encourage more democracies in this world. The moon we’ll worry about later.