"Calm Down"

The President of the U.S. sat down one day last week with Secretary of State Christian Herter and addressed himself to the problem of U.S. response to Fidel Castro's charges of "aggressive acts and conspiratorial activities" by the U.S. Eisenhower's decision--while some Congressmen and critics cried for retaliation --was to remain unprovoked.

Said his even-toned statement: the U.S. will not intervene in Cuba, has "real sympathy" for agrarian reform and other "Cuban ideals." The U.S. will go on objecting to Cuban violations of its own and international law that affect U.S. citizens. Moreover, the U.S. is considering solutions to its difficulties through "appropriate international procedures," e.g., the World Court.

In Havana, Castro read the statement, picked up the phone, ordered his propagandists to "calm down." The attacks whined to a standstill like a stopped phonograph record. In Washington, a report of the Central Intelligence Agency, in effect the most authoritative official U.S. appraisal of Castro, called him "not a Communist and certainly not an anti-Communist," but a violently anti-American nationalist being used by the Communists in an "intense" drive on Latin America. In Latin America, where Castro's prestige has been shrinking because of this fact, Ike's statement was cheered as wise handling of the problem.

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