JUAN M. CLARK Professor of Sociology, Miami-Dade Community College and Coordinator. Cuban Information Committee
Anyone mildly informed about Cuba would be deeply disappointed with this CBS report. Dan Rather claimed unrestricted access inside Cuba' but he presented nothing from the true people's level. Why was nothing shown about their daily life, including the procurement of food and housing? Why was an independent journalist fighting repression not interviewed, nor a known dissident?
The research was sloppy, making many historical errors. Castro was called president in 1961, and guerrilla leader Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo was in the Sierra Maestra Mountains.
More analytical insight could have been used. Dictators are known for manipulating the masses. Mr. Rather should have been aware of the implications of the popular explosion of Aug. 5, 1994. Thousands from the humblest areas of Havana took to the streets, demanding freedom.
The massive 1994 raft exodus that ensued came from the same social levels. It should make serious journalists ponder about the causes of this dramatic choice: a sophisticated totalitarianism repressing its people.
A meager mention of Castro's thousands of political executions was made, as well as of the huge political prison system. Some have been incarcerated for 30 years. A glimpse was made without discussion of the utter destruction of Havana due to totalitarian control of materials. Practically nothing was said of the rampant prostitution, indirectly sponsored by the government. The embargo was called the blockade, along Castro's line.
Mr. Rather's ecstatic look at Castro speaks volumes about his objectivity
The cliches on the free educational and medical systems were repeated without pondering. It would have been nice for Mr. Rather to try living like an average Cuban. His conclusions would have been less ambivalent.
By: JAIME SUCHLICKI. Professor of History and International Studies, University of Miami
The July 18 CBS documentary The Last Revolutionary, in which Dan Rather interviewed Fidel Castro, is historically inaccurate and perpetuates several myths about Castro.
The first myth is that Castro moved into the Soviet camp in the early 1960s to defend his revolution from the United States. Castro was anti-American long before arriving in power In 1958, while fighting in Cuba's mountains, he told close associates that once he gained power, the real revolution against the United States would begin The Soviets offered him a protective umbrella and ideology that fit his desire to remain in power indefinitely and to play an international role.
The second myth is that the Soviets introduced nuclear missiles in Cuba to defend the Cuban revolution. In fact, the Soviets put missiles in Cuba to alter the balance of power and force the United States to make concessions in Berlin and elsewhere.
The third myth is that the U.S. embargo causes Cuba's economic difficulties. Cuba's problems are a failed system stemming from continuous reliance on sugar and a repressive system that discourages private initiative.
The fourth myth is that in the l950s Castro was an idealist fighting for social justice. When he gained power, Castro was a seasoned revolutionary. He was, above all, committed to violence, to destroying Cuban society, to anti-Americanism, and to expanding his influence beyond Cuba.
Dan Rather failed to mention Castro's support for terrorist and insurgent groups, his military involvement in Africa, or that he called on Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1962 to launch nuclear missiles in Cuba against the United States.
This documentary did little to further U.S. understanding of messianic/totalitarian leaders like Castro, bent on opposing the United States and oppressing their people for their own causes.
"Solo la opresion debe temer el ejercicio pleno de las libertades" "Only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom."